Abstract

Leptin is a 16 KDa protein, consists of 167 amino acid residues. It has many functions including angiogenesis. Leptin either induces angiogenesis itself or influences the levels of other angiogenic factors. The aim of the present investigation was to study the effect of leptin on the levels of the angiogenic factors: vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and thymidine phosphorylase (TP) enzyme activity in prepubertal female albino rats. Twenty prepubertal female albino rats were divided randomly into two groups; 1st group (G I) its rats were injected intraperitoneally with saline alone and considered as control group. The 2nd group (G II) was daily intraperitoneally injected with leptin (recombinant rat leptin (L5073), Sigma Co.) in a dose of 3 µg/g body weight in 100 µl saline for 10 days. Obtained results revealed that leptin increased significantly the serum levels of both VEGF levels and TP activity. In addition, there was a positive correlation between VEGF levels and TP activity.