A. Bottner et al., Lack of leptin suppression in response to hypersecretion of catecholaminesin pheochromocytoma patients, METABOLISM, 48(5), 1999, pp. 543-545
Leptin is a major regulator of body weight and energy balance and is subjec
t to a variety of regulatory inputs. From several previous studies, catecho
lamines have been suggested to exert an inhibitory influence on leptin prod
uction in animals. In the present study, we analyzed leptin levels in relat
ion to catecholamine hypersecretion in 27 human pheochromocytoma patients.
A 10-fold increase in circulating norepinephrine (P < .0001) did not result
in suppression of plasma leptin in the patients compared with normal contr
ols (median and interquartile range, 4.3 ng/mL [2.4 to 6.8] v 2.2 ng/mL [1.
9 to 3.0] in men and 18.6 [12.3 to 27.0] v 11.4 [10.1 to 15.9] in women). C
orrelation analysis indicated a significant association of leptin with epin
ephrine in normal subjects (r = -.81, P < .0001), but not in pheochromocyto
ma patients. Leptin was not related to norepinephrine in either group. In c
onclusion, our data suggest that a chronic elevation of catecholamines does
not cause suppression of leptin secretion in patients with pheochromocytom
a. This lack of effect may be attributable to the development of tolerance
of adipose tissue leptin production to catecholamines. Copyright (C) 1999 b
y W.B. Saunders Company.