Inadequate leptin level negatively affects body fat loss during a weight reduction programme for childhood obesity.
Obesity is a typical example of a complex multifactorial disease arising from behavioural, environmental and genetic factors that may affect individual responses to dietary intake and physical activity. Observational, longitudinal dietary interventional studies in obese patients present contrasting reports on the predictive value of baseline leptin levels. We report on the effect of a weight reduction programme in three different groups of obese children (82 patients in all) assembled on the basis of their baseline leptin levels adjusted for body mass index (BMI), gender and pubertal development. The effectiveness of this programme was decreased in patients with relative hyperleptinaemia or hypoleptinaemia compared to children with baseline leptin levels appropriate to BMI gender and pubertal development.


CONCLUSIONS
Information gained from leptin assays could provide predictive insight into an individual's ability to lose body fat and may therefore have important implications for our approach to the treatment and prevention of childhood obesity.
Miraglia
del Giudice E
del GE
Department of Paediatrics, Second University of Naples, Italy. emanuele.miraglia@unina2.it
Santoro
N
N
Marotta
A
A
Nobili
B
B
Di
Toro R
TR
Perrone
L
L
D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood*; D009765:Obesity / Q000097:blood*; D015431:Weight Loss / Q000502:physiology*
D020738:Leptin