Serum leptin in formerly small-for-gestational-age children during adolescence: Relationship to gender, puberty, body composition, insulin sensitivity, creatinine, and serum uric acid

Serum leptin levels reflect body fat mass (FM), and have been described to be related to serum uric acid levels in adult type 2 diabetic and healthy s ubjects. We therefore aimed to evaluate the interrelationship between lepti n and markers of the metabolic syndrome by studying serum leptin concentrat ion, body mass index (BMI), percent body fat (Fat%), total fat mass (FM), s um of skinfolds (SS), triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (CHOL), high-de nsity lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), glucose, insulin, calculated insulin resistance (HOMA), creatinine (CR), and uric acid (UA) concentration in 50 former small-for-gestational- age (SGA) children and 21 infants born adequate for gestational age (AGA) a t the time of midpuberty. Our data confirm previous results showing a posit ive association between leptin and body fatness, and female gender. Twelve children with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) had higher UA levels than su bjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) (5.1 +/- 1.1 v 4.2 +/- 1.2 mg/dL , P < .05), and showed the strongest relation between serum leptin and UA ( r = .76, P < .001). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that gender, estimates of total body adiposity (Fat% and SS), birth weight (BW), gestati onal age (GA), stimulated glucose and insulin, and serum UA are independent ly associated with serum leptin concentration in former SGA children with d ysglycemia (R-2 = .89, P < .001). A long-term effect of intrauterine growth restriction on body fatness, metabolic syndrome, and serum leptin levels i s suggested. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.