Hypertension Does Not Alter Disturbances in Leptin Signalling Observed in Experimental Model of Tauopathy

Neurodegeneration is associated with hypertension and disturbance in fat metabolism. The complex interaction of neurodegenerative processes with both metabolic changes and blood pressure is still not fully elucidated. Here we demonstrate that the experimentally induced tauopathy in hypertensive transgenic animals causes significant downregulation of plasma leptin (53% of control), reduction of body weight by 11%, a 1.2-fold drop of adiposity index, and decrease in HDL cholesterol level, while the fasting glucose and insulin concentration remain unchanged. Despite of these alterations we found the leptin projection circuit including the arcuate nucleus, paraventricular nucleus in hypothalamus, and nucleus tractus solitarius in the brainstem not affected by neurofibrillary pathology. Furthermore, hypertension does not alter disturbances in leptin signalling. The presented data provide further insight into neurodegeneration-induced metabolic alterations relevant for human tauopathies.