The Serum Level of Leptin in Patients with Obesity: Asthmatic and Non-Asthmatic Children

Background: leptin is a pro-inflammatory cytokine produced by adipose tissue. considering the association between obesity and asthma, the current study aimed at investigating if leptin was in the pathway of obesity-asthma relationship in children and if it played a distinctive role in children with asthma and obesity versus the ones with obesity but without asthma. methods: the current case-control study was conducted on 23 children with asthma and obesity and 13 children with obesity but without asthma (body mass inde≥ 95%) aged 6 to 15 years from october 2011 to october 2012 in mofid children’s hospital, tehran, iran. group 1 included 23 children with asthma and obesity with a mean bmi of 24.3 kg/m^2, while group 2, included 13 cases with obesity but without asthma and a mean bmi of 26.6 kg/m^2. both groups were evaluated for their serum leptin, triglyceride, cholesterol, and ige mean levels. the serum leptin levels were measured by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) technique. the results were analyzed with spss version 19. the mann-whitney test was employed to compare the results. results: the mean serum leptin level in the children with asthma and obesity was 2.19 ng/ml and in the ones with obesity but without asthma was 2.85 ng/ml (p = 0.006). the mean serum triglyceride and cholesterol levels in the group 1 were 175.4 mg/dl and 189 mg/dl, respectively, while in the group 2 were 175.4 mg/dl and 226.2 mg/dl, respectively. a significant difference was observed in serum leptin levels between the children in groups 1 and 2 (p = 0.006), but surprisingly the increased leptin was detected in the group 2 subjects. conclusions: the current study findings indicated that serum levels of leptin were significantly higher in the cases with obesity but without asthma. therefore, other cytokines appeared to play a role in the children with asthma and obesity.