Relationship between leptin and body mass and metabolic syndrome in an adult population

Objective: To analyze the relationship between leptin and obesity expressed as body mass index (BMI) and certain components of the metabolic syndrome (MS) in an adult population. Methods: The study included 103 subjects, 42 men and 61 women, aged over 30 years, clinically defined as non-diabetic but with personal or family history of cardiovascular disease. All subjects underwent fasting blood measurement of leptin, insulin, glucose, glucose after ingestion of 75 g glucose, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides, and insulin resistance (IR) and BMI were calculated. Results: BMI as an index of overall adiposity was strongly associated with serum leptin. BMI rose as serum leptin levels increased from the first to the third tertile; the correlation between leptin and BMI was strong, r=0.524 in men and r=0.603 in women, with high statistical significance (p