الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Leptin may act as the critical link between adipose tissue and the reproductive system. Although considerable progress has been achieved in understanding the reproductive actions of leptin over the past few years, much work is needed before we can arrive at a complete understanding of its physiological role, if any. Up till now, no data has been published concerning the distribution and the expression levels of leptin in the rabbit maternal adipose tissue and placenta as well as in the different fetal rabbit tissues during pregnancy and postpartum. To achieve this goal, the study was designated to fulfill the following aspects: 1. Estimating the circulating leptin levels in pregnant, post partum, and non pregnant rabbits. 2. Investigating the relationship between serum leptin levels and related variables to gain a comprehensive view of leptin correlations with body weight, estrogen, and progesterone in pregnant, post partum, and non pregnant. 3. Studying the distribution of leptin in various rabbit maternal and fetal tissues using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). 4. Comparing the relative expression levels of leptin between pregnant, post partum, and non pregnant rabbits as well as among the different fetal rabbit tissues. The results of the present study showed that the serum levels of the circulating leptin in rabbits during pregnancy were significantly higher than in lactating and in non pregnant control rabbits. Furthermore, we identified that leptin has positive correlations with body weight and estrogen and negative correlation with progesterone in the pregnant and postpartum rabbits. RT-PCR verified the presence of RNAs encoding leptin in the rabbit maternal perirenal adipose tissue and placenta as well as in several fetal tissues including brain, liver, perirenal adipose tissue.