Plasma leptin in non-diabetic Asian Indians: association with abdominal adiposity

✍ Scribed by Ramachandran, A.; Snehalatha, C.; Vijay, V.; Satyavani, K.; Latha, E.; Haffner, S.M.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 66 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0742-3071
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9136(199711)14:11<937::aid-dia502>3.0.co;2-s

✦ Synopsis

Plasma leptin concentrations were measured in 144 non-diabetic men and women (age 21-73 years, BMI 14.8-37.7 kg m -2 ), in fasting samples collected during a population survey for diabetes mellitus. Leptin, fasting and 2-h post-glucose load plasma concentrations of glucose and immunoreactive insulin were measured. In a subset of 50 normoglycaemic individuals, subcutaneous fat (SF) and visceral fat (VF) areas at L4-L5 level were also measured by CT. As in other populations, women had significantly higher plasma leptin concentrations than men (p Ͻ 0.001) but the values were similar in normal (NGT) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). Geometric mean concentrations of leptin in men and women with NGT were 4.8 and 17.7 ng ml -1 , respectively, and the corresponding values in IGT were 6.2 and 19.0 ng ml -1 . Multiple regression analysis in the total group showed that the leptin concentration (log-transformed) was strongly dependent on sex (R 2 = 53.4 %), BMI (R 2 = 17.4 %), and to a lesser degree on the 2-h plasma insulin (R 2 = 2.4 %) and the WHR (R 2 = 0.8 %). In men, the total abdominal fat showed a strong association with leptin (R 2 = 49.3 %) and in women the subcutaneous fat area showed a similar effect (R 2 = 39.5 %). It is likely that subcutaneous and not visceral fat may be a determinant of plasma leptin in Asian Indians, and the correlation between leptin and insulin resistance may be less strong than in other ethnic groups.