Anthropometric parameters as markers for hyperleptinemia in adolescents

Leptin is an energy homeostasis marker synthesized by cells of adipose tissue (adipocytes) and gastric mucosa. The search for clinical and anthropometric parameters associated with energy homeostasis disorders in excess body weight (BW) and obesity is necessary for stratification of patients at risk for early implementation of energy homeostasis disorders. The purpose of this re-search was to evaluate the relationship between serum leptin concentration and anthropometric parameters reflecting the topography of subcutaneous fat in adolescents of different ethnicities with excess BW and obesity in order to identify the most informative anthropometric parameters of energy homeosta-sis disorders. Materials and methods used: a single-center cross-sectional study of 362 adolescents aged 11 to 17 y/o residing in the Republic of Buryatia and the Irkutsk Oblast of Russia was conducted in 2015-2016 that included the participants as follows: 186 Caucasians (46 boys/140 girls) and 176 Mongoloids (96 boys/80 girls); 136 adolescents in the control group (38%) and 226 adolescents with excess BW and obesity (62%). All par-ticipants had their linear height, BW, waist (WC) and hip (HC) circumference, skinfold thickness measured as well as the body mass index (BMI, in kg per m2) calculated. The concentrations of glucose, total cholesterol, high-density, low-density and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides and in-sulin were determined. The HOMA index was calculated. Serum leptin was de-termined by enzyme immunoassay using DBC Leptin ELISA kit (Diagnostics Biochem Canada Inc., Canada) with detection using BioTek Elx808 Microplate Spectrophotometer (Agilent Technologies, Inc., USA). Results: a strong posi-tive correlation was found between serum leptin levels and SDS BMI and trip-onderal BMI in adolescents of both ethnic groups: in Caucasian boys r=0.747 (p<0.001), r=0.767 (p<0.001), in Caucasian girls r=0.687 (p<0.001) and r=0.695 (p<0.001); in Mongoloid boys r=0.765 (p<0.001), r=0.852 (p<0.001), in Mongoloid girls r=0.612 (p<0.001), r=0.667 (p<0.001), respectively. Ac-cording to the results of ROC analysis, AUC WC/height showed good diagnos-tic significance for detecting hyperleptinemia (AUC=0.8-0.9) in adolescents from all the studied groups. Conclusion: the triponderal index and the WC/height ratio are informative anthropometric indicators for energy metabo-lism disorders and hyperleptinemia in Caucasian and Mongoloid adolescents of both genders with excess BW and obesity.