Serum leptin in formerly small-for-gestational-age children during adolescence: relationship to gender, puberty, body composition, insulin sensitivity, creatinine, and serum uric acid.

Serum leptin levels reflect body fat mass (FM), and have been described to be related to serum uric acid levels in adult type 2 diabetic and healthy subjects. We therefore aimed to evaluate the interrelationship between leptin and markers of the metabolic syndrome by studying serum leptin concentration, body mass index (BMI), percent body fat (Fat%), total fat mass (FM), sum of skinfolds (SS), triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (CHOL), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), glucose, insulin, calculated insulin resistance (HOMA), creatinine (CR), and uric acid (UA) concentration in 50 former small-for-gestational-age (SGA) children and 21 infants born adequate for gestational age (AGA) at the time of mid-puberty. Our data confirm previous results showing a positive association between leptin and body fatness, and female gender. Twelve children with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) had higher UA levels than subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) (5.1 +/- 1.1 v 4.2 +/- 1.2 mg/dL, P <.05), and showed the strongest relation between serum leptin and UA (r =.76, P <.001). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that gender, estimates of total body adiposity (Fat% and SS), birth weight (BW), gestational age (GA), stimulated glucose and insulin, and serum UA are independently associated with serum leptin concentration in former SGA children with dysglycemia (R(2) =.89, P <.001). A long-term effect of intrauterine growth restriction on body fatness, metabolic syndrome, and serum leptin levels is suggested. Copyright 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company