Leptin Level in Thai Children and Adolescents: Relation to BMI and Sexes

Abstract

Objective: The prevalence of obesity is rapidly increasing worldwide, including Thai children. Serum leptin is demonstrated largely that it increased in the dynamic phase in childhood - onset obesity. To our knowledge, there was no data of leptin measurement in this age group of our population. Methods: Therefore, we measured serum leptin by an immunoradiometric assay in sample from 208 obese and non-obese healthy children aged 2-18 years old. Its relationship to body mass index (BMI), ages and sexes were analyzed. Results: The mean serum leptin concentration in obese children was 35.06 ± 17.31 ng/ml compared with 14.70 ± 8.93 ng/ml in the non - obese children (p < 0.001). The obese female had significant higher level than in obese male group (43.26 ± 16.82 vs. 30.34 ± 15.85 ng/ml; p < 0.001), but they were not different in the non - obese group. The results showed that serum leptin correlated with BMI (r = 0.71; p < 0.001) and with % weight for height (%wt for ht) (r = 0.60, p < 0.001), respectively. Leptin levels in both sexes compared to age were also demonstrated. We did not find leptin deficiency or leptin resistance in all obese cases. Conclusion: In summary, leptin level in Thai children were increased according to BMI, % wt for ht and sexes as demonstrated in other ethnic groups. However, there is neither leptin deficiency nor leptin resistance demonstrated in this study.

Keywords

• BMI
• Leptin
• Non-obese
• Obese