LEP and Obesity: In addition to obesity and obesity complications, mice deficient in leptin (ob/ob; Zhang et al., 1994) or its receptor (db/db; Tartaglia et al., 1995) and humans deficient in the leptin receptor do not reach sexual maturity (Barash et al., 1996; Chehab et al., 1996; Farooqi et al., 2002).