The Levels Of Serum Leptin In Patients With Viral Hepatitis

Objectives The present study determined the levels of serum leptin in patients with viral hepatitis , The aim was to find out the correlations between serum leptin levels and viral hepatitis and to analyze the mechanism and significance of the changes . Methods Serum leptin levels were determined by radioimmunoassay in 30 male and 24 famale patients with viral chronic hepatitis ,in 10 male and 8 famale patients with fatty liver , and in 18 male and 20 famale control subjects , liver function (ALT , AST) , glucose (Glu) , and total cholesterol (TC) were evaluated too . Person Correlations and some other statistic methods were used during the data procession . Results Campared with controls and fatty liver patients , the levels of serum leptin were significantly increased in patients with HBV and HCV (P<0.05). Campared with controls , the levels of serum leptin were highly increased in famale patients with fatty liver (P<0.05), but not in male(P=0.7811). Serum leptin levels in Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C patients were significently higher than those recorded in the corresponding control groups(P<0. 05). There were no significent difference in serum leptin levels between the two groups of Hepatitis B patients (P>0. 05). Serum leptin levels have remarkable positive correlations with ALT and AST(P<0. 05), but not with Glu and TC (P>0. 05).Conclusions The levels of serum leptin increased in the patients with viral hepatitis (HBV and HCV) , which correlate positively with the severity of liver inflammation , so that leptin can be regarded as an index which reflects the severity of liver inflammation . The study of the changes of leptin in different liver diseases maybe have a great significance to the drug treament and prevention of liver diseases .