Serum Leptin Concentrations in Patients on Hemodialysis

Abstract

Serum leptin concentrations in normal humans have been reported to correlate with the body mass index (BMI) as well as with the body fat mass. In this study, we measured serum leptin concentrations in 107 patients on hemodialysis, 30 of whom had diabetes mellitus as the cause, and examined the clinical significance. Furthermore, we evaluated the effects of high-flux dialysis membranes on serum leptin levels. Serum leptin concentrations had a linear correlation with BMI as well as with the percentage of body fat in patients on hemodialysis. The serum leptin concentrations showed a positive correlation with the serum concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride, the body weight, the BMI, and the percentage of body fat. The serum leptin levels were not different between the diabetic and the nondiabetic groups. The serum leptin levels in the nondiabetic group were nearly fourfold higher in women than in men. We investigated the differences in the rate of reduction in serum leptin after dialysis with polysulfone membrane dialyzers (PS-N and PS-UW) in comparison with a cellulose membrane dialyzer (AM-SD), and as a result, we found that the polysulfone membrane dialyzers removed serum leptin, while the cellulose membrane dialyzer did not. We conclude that in patients on hemodialysis, the serum leptin concentration is a valuable clinical marker of the body fat content and may also contribute to the evaluation of hyperlipidemia.