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 Baskin, Denis, Ph.D.
Research Professor
VA Puget Sound Health Care System
Building 1/Room 517
1660 So. Columbian Way, Mail Stop S-151
Seattle, WA 98108
UW Mailbox 358280
Office Phone: 206-768-5222 or 206-616-5894
My research program focuses on the CNS regulation of food intake, body
weight, and energy balance by hormones such as insulin and leptin. These
hormones, which are present in blood in direct proportion to body fat mass,
have a profound anorexic effect when they enter the brain, where they alter
the transcription, synthesis, and secretion of peptides (such as neuropeptide Y and melanocortins) in
feeding-related neural circuits of the hypothalamus and brainstem. Recent work has focused on the
interaction of leptin with the satiety action of peptides such as CCK and GLP-1 produced in the intestines
during a meal. These gut peptides signal to the brainstem via the vagus nerve and regulate meal size by
causing satiety, thereby resulting in meal termination. In the presence of leptin, these satiety signals to
the brain are more effective, resulting in smaller meals. We have used immunocytochemistry, situ
hybridization, retrograde axonal transport, confocal microscopy, and laser capture microdissection to
identify the neuronal cell types, peptide receptors and circuits that participate in regulating meal size by
the action of leptin in the hypothalamus and brainstem and, in particular, the interaction of leptin and gut
satiety signals to the hindbrain. The goal of this research is to understand brain mechanisms that regulate
food intake and body weight and how these mechanisms are altered in diabetes and obesity.
Schwartz, MW, Woods, SC, Porte Jr D, Seeley RJ, Baskin DG: Central nervous system control of food
intake. Nature, 404:661-671, 2000.
Grill HJ, Schwartz MW, Kaplan JM, Foxhall JS, Breininger J, and Baskin DG: Evidence that the caudal
brainstem is a target for the inhibitory effect of leptin on food intake. Endocrinology 143:239-246, 2002.
Niswender KD, Gallis B, Blevins JE, Corson M, Schwartz MW, Baskin DG: Immunocytochemical detection of
phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activation by insulin and leptin. J Histochem Cytochem 51:275-284, 2003.
Blevins JE, Eakin TJ, Murphy JA, Schwartz MW, Baskin DG: Oxytocin innervation of caudal brainstem nuclei
activated by cholecystokinin. Brain Res 993:30-41, 2003.
Blevins JE, Schwartz MW, Baskin DG: Evidence that paraventricular nucleus oxytocin neurons link
hypothalamic leptin action to caudal brainstem nuclei controlling meal size. Am J Physiol Regul Intger Comp Physiol 287:87-96, 2004.
Porte D Jr, Baskin DG, Schwartz MW: Insulin signaling in the central nervous system: A critical role in
metabolic homeostasis and disease from C. elegans to man. Diabetes 54:1264-1276, 2005.
Morton GJ, Blevins JE, Niswender KD, Gelling RW, Rhodes CJ, Baskin DG, and Schwartz MW: Leptin Action
in the Forebrain Regulates the Hindbrain Response to Satiety Signals: A Mechanism Linking Body Fat Mass
to the Control of Meal Size. J Clin Invest 115:703-710, 2005.
Roth KA, Baskin DG: Enzyme-based fluorescence amplification for immunohistochemistry and in situ
hybridization. In: Molecular Morphology in Human Tissues: Techniques and Applications, Chapter 3. G
Hacker and R Tubbs, eds. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL, 2005.
Morton GJ, Cummings DE, Baskin DG, Barsh GS and Schwartz MW: Central Nervous System Control of Food
Intake and Body Weight. Nature 443:289-295, 2006.
Baskin DG: Single-minded view of melanocortin signaling in energy homeostasis. Endocrinology, 147:4539
-4541, 2006.
Williams DL, Baskin DG, Schwartz MW.: Leptin regulation of the anorexic response to glucagon like peptide
-1 receptor stimulation. Diabetes 55:3387-93, 2006.
Bastian LS, Baskin DG: Techniques for immuno-laser capture microscopy of neurons for real time
quantitative PCR. In: Methods in Molecular Biology Volume 115: Immunocytochemical Methods and Protocols, 3rd ed., C Oliver, M C Jamur, eds. Humana Press, in press.
Williams DL, Schwartz MW, Bastian LS, Blevins JE, Baskin DG. Immunocytochemistry and laser capture
microdissection for real time quantitative PCR identify hindbrain neurons activated by interaction between
leptin and cholecystokinin. J Histochem Cytochem 56:285-294, 2008
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