Endocrine Abstracts

Background and aims: The aim of our study is to investigate the possible associations between leptin and fasting insulin and index HOMA-IR in patients with Metabolic Syndrome as Leptin is involved in regulation of body weight.

Materials and methods: The study included 100 patients (32 m, 68 f) 25–65 years. They were divided into 2 groups matched by sex, age, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Research group included 56 patients (24 m, 32 f) with Metabolic Syndrome: abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, glucose intolerance, hypertension and dyslipidemia. Control group included 44 patients (16 m, 28 f) without clinical and biochemical findings of Metabolic Syndrome. The average fasting plasma glucose, 2-hour plasma glucose concentrations following a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test, total cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were also evaluated. Fasting serum leptin (FL) and fasting insulin levels (FI) were detected by sensitive and specific ELISA. Index HOMA-IR was calculated by standard formula. HOMA-IR=or> 2.7 were considered as insulin resistance.

Results: In patients of the research and control groups serum leptin levels were higher in females (median 45.1 and 27.8 ng/ml respectively) than in males (15.9 and 7.7 ng/ml respectively). But only in patients of the research group correlations were between BMI and WHR (r=0.91 P<0.001 vs r=0.93 P<0.01 respectively). Correlation analysis showed that FL were significantly correlated with the FI (r=0.56 P<0.01) and HOMA-IR (r=0.52 P<0.01) in research group. In subjects of the control group leptin concentration correlated with the HOMA-IR only in men (r=0.91 P<0.01) and not correlated in female. The strongest correlations were between FL and total cholesterol (r=+0.49 ?<0.05 in men) and triglycerides (r=+0.8 ?<0.05 in women) in research group.

Conclusion: Determine positive correlation of basal leptin and index insulin resistance confirms hyperleptinemia and leptinresistance concern in formation of metabolic syndrome.