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Receptor biology

How to control hunger

White adipose tissue secretes the small polypeptide hormone leptin, which controls food intake and satiety. Unlike other metabolic hormones such as insulin and glucagon, leptin does not act on the major metabolic organs liver, muscle, and white adipose tissue, but instead exerts its primary function on the central nervous system.

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Fig. 1: Leptin-dependent assembly and activation of LepR complex.

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Acknowledgements

E.C. is supported in part by US National Institutes of Health grants R01DK132361, R35GM142937, P30DK132710, and P30DK063608.

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Correspondence to Eunhee Choi.

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Hung, A., Choi, E. How to control hunger. Nat Struct Mol Biol 30, 409–411 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-023-00963-3

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