Gender-specific Reference Range for Serum Leptin in Omani Population

Abstract

Objectives: Leptin is a hormone that contributes to glucose homeostasis and food intake regulation via its action on the hypothalamus. Leptin level increases with obesity and overfeeding and decreases with energy deficiency. Serum leptin levels vary between different ethnic groups with no reports of its reference range in the Arabic population. We sought to determine gender-specific reference ranges for serum leptin in a cohort of the Arabic population and identify the cut-off value for different metabolic derangements.

Methods: The study data were obtained from the records of 1198 subjects included in the Oman Family Study. The percentile method was used in the estimation reference range and the receiver operating characteristic to identify cut-off points for multiple metabolic derangements.

Results: The reference range of serum leptin was 0.5–90.6 ng/mL, and it was not correlated with the age of the subjects. Higher leptin was observed in females compared to males (p < 0.001), and the reference range for serum leptin in females was 4.9–96.3 ng/mL compared to 0.25–48.8 ng/mL in males. The optimum cut-off value for leptin ranged between 24.1–28.9 ng/mL for metabolic syndrome, obesity, central obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Conclusions: We identified gender-specific reference ranges for serum leptin in a large cohort of Arabs. The optimum cut-off value for serum leptin to determine metabolic derangement with the highest sensitivity and specificity was 24.1–28.9 ng/ mL. Future studies are needed to study the relative risk of higher serum leptin using prospective studies.