ShreeRanga Nagaraj, M. S. Peddha, U. Manjappara
Feb 15, 2008
Citations
3
Influential Citations
45
Citations
Quality indicators
Journal
Biochemical and biophysical research communications
Abstract
Obestatin, shown to reduce feed intake and gain in body weight in rodents, is a very attractive candidate to be used against obesity. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between the primary structure and activity of obestatin. Also of interest to us is a peptide of minimal length that closely mimics obestatin. Towards the same, we synthesized rodent obestatin and three overlapping fragments spanning residues 1-13, 6-18, and 11-23 of obestatin. These peptides subsequent to purification and characterization were tested upon adult male mice for their ability to reduce feed intake and gain in body weight. The N-terminal peptide (residues 1-13) mimicked obestatin the closest. The middle fragment (residues 6-18) significantly reduced epididymal fat without much altering feed intake or body weight.