Leptin and pre-eclampsia in black African parturients.
Date
2002-11Author
Kafulafula, GE
Moodley, J
Ojwang, PJ
Kagoro, H
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Objective To measure serum concentrations of the hormone leptin during late pregnancy in Black African women with pre-eclampsia, healthy normotensive pregnant women as controls and healthy normotensive non-pregnant women; secondly, to explore the relationship between leptin and obesity.
Design Observational, cross sectional study.
Setting Antenatal clinics, antenatal wards, gynaecology out patient and family planning clinics of a tertiary hospital, Durban, South Africa.
Population Pregnant and non-pregnant Black African women.
Method Serum leptin was measured by a homologous radio-immunoassay technique. Simple anthropometric parameters were used to explore the relationship between leptin and obesity. In each group, leptin levels were compared between obese (body mass index, BMI ≥ 30 kg m−2) and lean women.
Main outcome measures Serum leptin concentrations, anthropometric parameters, mean blood pressures and proteinuria.
Results There were 68 women with pre-eclampsia, 92 healthy normotensive pregnant women (controls) and 32 healthy normotensive non-pregnant women. Serum leptin levels were higher in pregnant compared with non-pregnant women [26.66 (1.96) and 25.89 (1.65) vs 17.97 (2.11) ng/mL, P= 0.02]. Weight and BMI showed the greatest correlation with leptin both in pregnant (r= 0.61 and r= 0.58, respectively) and non-pregnant women (r= 0.74 and 0.79, respectively). There was no significant difference in the mean concentrations of leptin between women with and those without pre-eclampsia [26.66 (1.96) vs 25.89 (1.65) ng/mL, respectively, P= 0.95].
Conclusion Pregnancy is a hyperleptinaemic state. There is no difference in serum leptin levels between Black African women with pre-eclampsia and healthy normotensive pregnant women. Serum leptin concentration is largely determined by the degree of adiposity.
URI
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1471-0528.2002.02043.x/fullhttp://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/30408
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12452464
Citation
An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology Volume 109, Issue 11, pages 1256–1261, November 2002Publisher
University of Nairobi Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10377]