Objective:To investigate the role of high central leptin activity in the development of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) in bipedal amputated C57BL/6J mice. Methods:Amputation of forelimbs and tails was performed at the age of 3-week on 40 C57BL/6J mice. Three days after procedure,these mice were randomly divided into two groups:20 mice were injected in the hypothalamus with lentivirus vectors which overexpressed leptin,whereas the others were injected with control lentivirus vectors. X-rays were obtained at 20th week to determine the development of spinal deformity. After that all mice were sacrificed,and blood samples were collected. Then peripheral leptin levels were measured by an ELISA kit. Comparisons for the incidence of scoliosis,curve magnitude and peripheral leptin levels were performed between groups. Results:The body weight was found to be slightly lower in the leptin-vector-treated C57BL/6J mice when compared with control mice. Significantly higher peripheral serum leptin level was found in leptin-vector-treated mice than controls. Scoliosis was observed in all of 20 leptin-vector-treated mice with an average Cobb angle of 30.8°,and in 18 out of 20 controls with an average Cobb angle of 20.3°. Conclusion:Significantly severer curve were observed in leptin-vector-treated mice when compared with control mice,although no difference was observed in term of the scoliosis incidence between two groups. The result of the current study implied that the high central leptin activity might play an important role in the development of AIS.