My team studies the molecular and physiological pathways involved in the regulation of human appetite and body weight and their disruption in obesity. Some of the molecular pathways involved in regulating weight also regulate blood pressure and lipid metabolism, and affect an individual's risk of cardiovascular diseases.
One of the links between obesity and cardiovascular disease is leptin. We have identified mutations in leptin gene using candidate gene approach in patients with severe, early onset obesity, and have demonstrated that leptin contributes to hypertension in obese individuals. These results suggest that pharmacological approaches that modulate leptin’s effects on cells could represent a useful therapeutic strategy for the treatment of obesity-associated hypertension and might help prevent a subset of obesity-associated cardiovascular disease.