CHEN, X.L., D.B. HAUSMAN, R.G. DEAN, G.J. HAUSMAN. Hormonal regulation of leptin mRNA expression and preadipocyte recruitment and differentiation in porcine primary cultures of S-V cells. Obes Res. 1998;6:164-172. The hormonal regulation of leptin mRNA expression and the association between leptin expression and adipocyte differentiation were examined in primary cultures of porcine S-V cells with Northern blot and immunocytochemical analysis. Seeding for 3 days with fetal bovine serum (FBS) with varying levels of dexamethasone (Dex) increased levels of leptin mRNA in a dosedependent manner in parallel with increases in the proportion of preadipocytes (AD-3 positive cells; AD-3, a preadipocyte marker). Six-day treatment with 10 or 850 nM insulin after FBS+Dex treatment resulted in a similar increase in leptin mRNA expression and morphological differentiation. However, significantly lower levels of leptin mRNA and smaller fat cells were observed in cultures treated with l nM insulin or 10 nM insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I). Dex-induced increases in leptin mRNA levels and AD-3 cell numbers were blocked completely by the addition of transforming growth factor+ (TGF-P) to FBS+Dex-treated cultures. However TGF-f3 significantly increased fat cell size and leptin mRNA expression when added to ITS (insulin, 850 nM; transferrin, 5 pg/ml; and selenium, 5 pg/mL) treated cultures during the lipid-filling stage. When added with ~~