Figure 6. LR^Δα mice show enhanced leptin sensitivity and reduced hypothalamic PTEN expression.

(A) Blunted acute anorexigenic effect of leptin (3 hours of refeeding) in LR^Δα (n = 8/treatment) compared with α^fl (n = 9/treatment) males [F(1,30) = 8.89, P = 0.006]. (B) Leptin induced similar SOCS3 mRNA expression in the arcuate nucleus (Arc) of fasted LR^Δα and α^fl females [n = 5/group; F(1,16) = 150.7, P < 0.0001]. (C) Representative Western blotting and relative protein quantification from hypothalamic extracts show enhanced leptin-induced pSTAT3 in fasted LR^Δα compared with α^fl (n = 8/treatment, females [F(1,28) = 6.3, P = 0.018 for genotype analysis; F(1,28) = 46.35, P < 0.0001 for treatment analysis]. (D) Reduced PTEN expression from hypothalamic extracts of fasted mice injected with vehicle or leptin [F(1,28) = 7.02, P = 0.013; n = 8/treatment, females]. (E) Representative Western blotting and relative protein quantification of pAKT at Ser473 residue (pAKT_S473) from hypothalamus of fasted mice injected with vehicle or leptin (n = 3–4/treatment, females) showed increased pAKT_S473 expression in LR^Δα females [F(1,11) = 10.1, P = 0.009]. Each point represents 1 individual mouse. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05 versus control mice; groups with different superscript letters are statistically different by 2-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc analysis.