Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: SARS-Cov2 infection can lead to severe cytokine storm especially in obese patients. It is known that the cytokine storm might lead to severe clinical manifestations or even acute mortality in critically ill patients with COVID-19. Ghrelin as well as leptin can act as the proinflammatory cytokines. The essential question is whether the cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients with obesity is associated with adipokines dysregulation.

Aim: The study aimed to assess ghrelin and leptin concentrations in patients 6 months after the SARS-Cov2 infection in comparison to control group. In addition, selected biochemical, hormonal, anthropometric and densitometric parameters, considering the influence of sex, were also assessed.

Material and Methods: The study group included 53 patients with a history of COVID-19 and 87 healthy subjects in the control group. Leptin and ghrelin concentrations as well as hormonal and biochemical were measured. The bioethics committee of Wroclaw Medical University approved the protocol of the study. All subjects signed informed consent forms in line with the Declaration of Helsinki. The statistical analysis was performed using R for Windows statistical software (version 4.0.4, Vienna, Austria).

Results: A statistically higher ghrelin concentration was observed in the COVID-19 group in comparison to the control group (1190.56 pg/ml vs 901.39 pg/ml, P=0.003), with statistically significant impact of the sex on the relationship between COVID-19 and ghrelin concentration which was lower in males. No statistically significant differences in leptin concentration were observed between the groups although in both groups we observed significantly lower leptin level in males (P=0.033). Significant negative correlation was observed between ghrelin and testosterone and morning cortisol levels in COVID-19 group. We observed significant correlation between leptin concentration and metabolic parameters as well as CRP levels in both groups.

Conclusions: The higher levels of ghrelin in patients with mild form of SARS-Cov2 infection for up to six months ago might indicate the possible protective role of ghrelin in inflammatory process. In our study leptin levels did not differ between both groups of patients, probably because patients had only slightly increased BMI. We could also suppose that leptin might be involved in the dysregulation of proinflammatory cytokines in obesity, which is the leading cause of high morbidity and mortality in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.