Leptin is closely related to body fat in prepubertal children aged 8-11 years
Magnus Dencker1, Ola Thorsson, Magnus K Karlsson
1Department of Clinical Sciences, University Hospital MAS, Malmö, Sweden. magnus.dencker@skane.se
Background:
In adults and obese children, serum leptin concentrations are closely related to body fat.
Aim:
To investigate whether such a relationship between leptin concentrations and body fat is also evident in children with a relatively normal body composition.
Methods:
The study was a cross-sectional population study in 170 Caucasian children (91 boys and 79 girls), with a mean age of 9.9+/-0.6 y (range 8.5-10.9 y) and a mean BMI of 17.4+/-2.6 (range 12.8-28.1). Serum leptin was measured and compared to total body fat as determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.
Results:
In the whole population, serum leptin concentrations were highly correlated with total body fat (r=0.83, p<0.001). A stepwise forward multi-regression analysis revealed that the inclusion of other anthropometrical data did not add any significance to the model. Leptin concentrations were significantly higher in girls (5.2 ng/ml) than in boys (3.2 mg/ml; p=0.003). Gender differences still prevailed (p=0.007) after adjusting for number of kilograms of fat tissue.
Conclusion:
This study shows that, already at the young age of 9-11 y, an adult-like pattern of regulation of leptin exists. This indicates similar risk factor dependency of leptin across all age groups.
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