Serum leptin levels in diabetic patients on hemodialysis: The relationshipto parameters of diabetes metabolic control

Leptin is a protein hormone produced predominantly by adipocytes that affec ts food intake and energy expenditure. Its serum levels are significantly h igher in patients with chronic renal failure compared to healthy subjects. The aim of this study was to compare serum leptin levels in hemodialyzed pa tients with type II diabetes mellitus (n=26) with body content-matched hemo dialyzed patients without diabetes (n=26) and to explore the relationship b etween parameters of the long term diabetes metabolic control and serum lep tin levels. Serum leptin levels in diabetic patients did not significantly differ from those of non-diabetic patients (25.3+/-8.8 vs 25.7+/-8.7 ng/ml). Serum lept in levels in diabetic patients positively correlated with body fat content, body mass index and predialysis serum insulin levels. No significant relat ionship were observed between serum leptin levels and blood glucose, glycat ed hemoglobin, glycated protein, serum urea, creatinine, leukocyte count an d total hemoglobin respectively. The multiple stepwise regression analysis revealed that body fat content together with body mass index accounted for 77.8 % of variations in predialysis serum leptin levels, while insulin leve ls and the parameters of diabetes metabolic control had only slight predict ion value for leptin concentrations. We conclude that serum leptin levels in hemodialysed patients with type III diabetes mellitus do not significantly differ from those of hemodialysed n ondiabetic patients. The body fat content and body mass index are the stron gest predictors of serum leptin levels, while parameters of long term diabe tes metabolic control play probably only minor direct role in its regulatio n.