[Effect of sideropenic anemia and its therapy on serum levels of leptin]

Leptin is a protein hormone produced predominantly by adipocytes. Its major role in human body is probably to regulate the food intake through the hypothalamic satiety center. One of the peripheral effects of leptin, which was studied mainly in vitro so far, is its stimulating effect on the haematopoietic stem cells. The information concerning the changes of serum leptin levels in various haematological diseases is very limited. The aim of our study was to explore changes of serum leptin levels in patients with sideropenic anaemia at the time of diagnosis and in the various phases of their treatment.

18 patients with untreated sideropenic anaemia (SA) and 20 healthy age, gender and weight-matched control subjects were included into the study. The blood testing in SA patients was performed before anaemia treatment, at the time of maximal increase of reticulocytes and after haemoglobin levels normalisation. Blood count, serum leptin, erythropoietin (EPO) and transpherine receptor (TfR) levels were estimated in all samples. Basal serum leptin levels in SA patients did not differ significantly from those of control subjects (13.9 +/- 14.6 SD vs 10.4 +/- 8.8 SD ng.ml-1). Treatment anaemia of did not significantly affect the serum leptin levels in SA patients (13.9 +/- 14.6 SD vs 12.9 +/- 12.6 SD vs 12.8 +/- 15.1 SD ng-ml-1). Serum EPO and TfR levels in SA patients were higher before the start of treatment and decreased significantly after the anaemia recovery. In both groups serum leptin levels correlated positively with body mass index. No unambiguous statistically significant relationships between serum leptin levels and blood count parameters or serum EPO and TfR levels were found in any of the groups studied.

Neither the changes of red blood cell count during the sideropenic anemia treatment nor the increased erythropoiesis affect significantly serum leptin levels.