A role for leptin in sustaining lymphopoiesis and myelopoiesis

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Abstract
Although leptin is known for its regulation of food intake, it has many emerging roles in immune function. To better define the role of leptin in hematopoietic processes, a leptin-deficient obese mouse (ob/ob) and C57BL/6 lean wild-type controls were compared. Despite their large size and consumption of substantial amounts of nutrients, theob/obmice had only 60% as many nucleated cells in their marrow as controls. The greatest impact of leptin deficiency was on the B cell compartment that had 70% fewer cells, reducing the absolute number of pre-B and immature B cells to 21% and 12% of normal, respectively, and indicating a significant reduction in lymphopoiesis inob/obmice. Whereas the proportion of myeloids remained nearly normal in the obese mice, they also exhibited a reduction of 40% and 25%, respectively, in absolute numbers of granulocytes and monocytes. Seven days of provision of recombinant leptin promoted substantial lymphopoiesis, increasing the numbers of B cells in the marrow of the obese mice twofold, while doubling and tripling, respectively, the numbers of pre-B and immature B cells. Twelve days of supplementation brought these subpopulations to near-normal proportions. Leptin treatment also facilitated myelopoiesis such that the marrow of the obese mice contained normal numbers of monocytes and granulocytes after 7 days. Taken together, the data support an important role for leptin in sustaining lymphopoiesis and myelopoiesis.