Abstract

BACKGROUND
Leptin is a hormone which is produced in adipose tissue and regulates food intake and body weight. Leptin is known to correlate with body adiposity such as body mass index. Blood leptin concentration is not different between non-diabetics and diabetics. And It affect not only food intake but may be one of the key factors in the developement of insulin resistance. Recent studies suggest a complex relationship between leptin and insulin resistance or insulin. Therefore we examined the relationship between leptin and anthropometric, biochemical parameters, and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetics. METHOD: The study subjects were 144 patients with type 2 diabetes who visited Kyungpook national university hospital. Anthropometric parameters such as body fat mass, soft lean mass, BMI, arm circumference, skin fold thickness of several sites were measured. Percent body fat were calculated from Brozek fomula, body density were calculated from Jackson and Pollock fomula. Fasting blood leptin and metabolic varables such as C-peptide, HbA1C, insulin, HDL, LDL, TG, total cholesterol, FFA, HOMA-IR were measured. The relationships of blood leptin concentration with clinical data were analyzed with SPSS program. RESULT: Blood leptin concentrations were 8.2 +/- 5.39 ng/mL in women with type 2 diabetes and 5.1 +/- 5.55 ng/mL in men with type 2 diabetes (P-value: 0.01). Percent body fat, FFA were higher in women than men but arm circumference, soft lean mass, waist circumference were higher in men than women (P-value < 0.05). Leptin concentration correlated with BMI, percent body fat, insulin, TG, body fat mass, waist circumference, HOMA-IR. And insulin, C-peptide, total cholesterol, TG were also correlated with leptin only in women with type 2 diabetes. Waist circumference and percent body fat were independent variables which influence blood leptin concentration in multiple regression analysis. CONCLUSION: Blood leptin concentrations are related to parameters such as percent body fat, waist circumference, BMI, body fat mass, insulin, TG, HOMA-IR in type 2 diabetics. The relationship between leptin and obesity or HOMA-IR suggests that leptin may be a one of factors in developement of insulin resistance.

• Keywords: Insulin Resistance;Leptin;Type 2 Diabetics;