Looking for a relation between serum leptin concentration and body composition parameters in healthy term infants in the first 6 months of life.

We carried out a cross-sectional study of 115 healthy infants, younger than 6 months old, exclusively breast-fed or formula-fed, to investigate correlations between circulating leptin concentrations and body composition measurements. Serum leptin was evaluated with radioimmunoassay, and body composition with bioelectrical impedance analysis. Multiple regression analysis showed a relationship between serum leptin and body mass index in the entire study population (P = 0.042). There was a significant negative relationship between serum leptin and phase angle (P = 0.006) in formula-fed infants. Serum leptin was positively related to subscapular skinfold thickness (P = 0.055) and negatively to reactance (P = 0.057) only in formula-fed infants, although the differences were just below significance. Serum leptin concentration was higher in breast-fed infants (P = 0.002), and was not correlated with body composition parameters. This study indicates that there is a relation between leptin and infant body composition in the first months of life, although the link needs to be explored further.