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.