LEP and Hypertension: Moreover, each of elevated sympathetic tone, hypothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA) overactivity, and leptin resistance characteristic of metabolic syndrome, particularly in SHR rats, directly and indirectly potentiate the metabolic syndrome, CVD, and vascular ROS/RNS stress, by inducing hypertension, immunocyte inflammatory cytokine secretion, fueling adipose, and liver inflammatory cytokine production and secretion, and stimulating free fatty acid mobilization to increase fatty liver, insulin resistance, and vascular inflammation (reviewed in [13]).