Evidence-Based Medicine
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Apr 15, 2019; 10(4): 260-268
Published online Apr 15, 2019. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v10.i4.260
Are serum leptin levels predicted by lipoproteins, vitamin D and body composition?
Aysha Habib Khan, Syeda Sadia Fatima, Ahmed Raheem, Lena Jafri
Aysha Habib Khan, Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Pakistan
Syeda Sadia Fatima, Department of Basic Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Pakistan
Ahmed Raheem, Lena Jafri, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Pakistan
Author contributions: Khan AH analyzed the data and contributed in discussion writing manuscript and made critical revisions related to the important intellectual content of the manuscript; Jafri L and Fatima SS conceived the idea, decided the design of the study, collected data, performed analysis and interpretation of the data, and participated in writing of the manuscript; Raheem A contributed statistical analysis and results writing; All authors gave final approval of the version of the article to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest arising from this work.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement has been submitted.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lena Jafri, FCPS, MBBS, Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, P.O. Box 3500, Karachi 74800, Pakistan. lena.jafri@aku.edu
Telephone: +92-21-34861946 Fax: +92-21-24932095
Received: February 8, 2019
Peer-review started: February 10, 2019
First decision: March 11, 2015
Revised: April 11, 2015
Accepted: April 14, 2019
Article in press: April 14, 2019
Published online: April 15, 2019
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Obesity is considered a leptin resistant state leading to elevated leptin levels. Obesity in turn has also been linked to Vitamin D deficiency (VDD).

Research motivation

Going at par with VDD, obesity is also becoming a rapidly growing health problem in Pakistan. Obesity has been associated with both leptin and VDD. Few studies have attempted to investigate the effect of body composition and leptin with vitamin D in this part of the world.

Research objectives

We investigated the relation of serum leptin with body composition, lipids and vitamin D in adults.

Research methods

In a cross sectional study design bioelectrical impedance analysis was performed on 167 apparently healthy adults along with recording their demographics and clinical history. Blood was drawn for biochemical analysis of serum leptin, total vitamin D, total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol.

Research results

Majority of the study group was vitamin D deficient. Females had higher median leptin levels compared to their counterparts. Overall 17 (10.1%) study subjects had raised serum leptin levels with 88.2% of these subjects being Vitamin D deficient. Basic metabolic rate, muscle mass, bone mass, body fat percent, lipids and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) and gender were associated with serum leptin levels. Bone and muscle mass and serum 25OHD bore an inverse relation with serum leptin.

Research conclusions

The cross-sectional nature of this study could not elucidate causal relationships. However, it outlines important interplay between circulating leptin, vitamin D and body composition. The results indicate that basal metabolic rate, muscle mass, body fat percent, bone mass and serum vitamin D have an impact on serum leptin levels. 25OHD did not vary between obese and non-obese. This probably could be because > 80% of the study group was D deficient.

Research perspectives

Future studies addressing the causal relationships between these essential molecules, leptin, vitamin D and lipids is needed to better understand their use as biomarkers of risk for obesity and diseases associated with obesity.