Leptin and its receptor expression in swine pituitaries cultured in deprived conditions

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of deprived culture conditions on leptin and its receptor forms in pig pituitary slides. After incubation of anterior pituitary slides in DMEM/Ham’s-F12 (A) or DMEM/Ham’s-F12 salts (B), total RNA was extracted by RNAwiz and RT-PCR was carried out. Specific primers were used to amplify leptin and its receptors (long and short form). The values are presented as the ratio of the band intensities of the leptin or its receptors over those of the corresponding ribosomal 18S RT-PCR product. Leptin mRNA levels was significantly lower in group B than in group A. Long form receptor expression was significantly higher in group B than in group A. No effects on short receptor form mRNA expression were observed. These data demonstrate that culture conditions modulate leptin expression at pituitary level and may influence its activity.