Hanane Bouchefa; Imane Ghouri; Nawel Morzouglal; Amel Ghozlani; Thiziri Ait Sai & Fatima Hadj-Bekkouche

Leptin, a hormone primarily produced by adipocytes, plays a crucial role in maintaining energy balance. It also affects various organs, such as the pancreas. In order to study the peripheral effect of intraperitoneal exogenous leptin treatment, 60-day- old male Wistar rats received daily injections of leptin at a dose of 8 μg/100g body weight for 5 days. Several parameters were assessed to evaluate leptin’s impact on pancreas, including tissue changes and blood levels of different biochemical markers, including insulin. The results show that leptin treatment influences body weight, leading to a decrease in plasma insulin and blood glucose levels, and an increase in cholesterol and triglyceride levels in treated rats compared to controls. Histomorphometric analysis of the pancreas in treated rats, after Haematoxylin-Eosin and Fuchsin-Paraldehyde staining, reveals a significant decrease in the diameter of the pancreatic islets (islets of Langerhans) in treated rats compared with controls, which suggests the presence of a disturbance in insulin secretion.

KEY WORDS: Leptin; Pancreas; Wistar rat; Insulin; Histomorphometry.

BOUCHEFA, H.; GHOURI, I.; MORZOUGLAL, N.; GHOZLANI, A.; AIT SAI, T. & HADJ-BEKKOUCHE, F. Short-term intraperitoneal leptin injections on male wistar rats: histology and histomorphometry of pancreatic islets and biochemical parameters. Int. J. Morphol, 44(1):231-238, 2026.