Effects of leptin on fracture healing in rat tibia

Objectives: in this study,we aimed to evaluate possible effects of leptin on fracture healing. materials and methods: between november 2009 and may 2010,54 male sprague dawley rats with a mean age of 16 weeks and a mean body weight of 323 g (range; 295-352 g) were included and randomly divided into three equal groups. standardized tibial fractureswere created to all rats. group 1 was treated with 0.5 ml physiological saline,group 2 was treated with 0.1 μg/kg leptin within 0.5 ml physiological saline,and group 3 was treated 0.3 μg/kg leptin within 0.5 ml physiological saline for 14 days intraperitoneally. each group was divided into three subgroups including six rats for the evaluation at second,third and fifth weeks. results: radiological evaluation showed that fracture healing ofgroup 3 was better than group 1 (p=0.014) only at fifth week. histological evaluation revealed fracture healing of group 3 was better than group 1 at third week (p=0.011). at fifth week,both group 2 and group 3 had better fracture healing than group 1 (p=0.006,p=0.002,respectively). there was no statistically significant difference in fracture healing between group 2 and 3 at fifth week (p=0.176). conclusion: leptin has a positive dose-dependent effect on rat tibial fracture healing.