Depressed women exhibit higher leptin concentrations.

2003 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A sexual diergism of baseline plasma leptin and leptin suppression by arginine vasopressin was found in patients with depression.

According to a study from the United States, "Leptin inhibits appetite by activating several neuroendocrine systems, including the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal cortical (HPA) axis. In turn, chronically elevated glucocorticoids increase circulating leptin. HPA axis hyperactivity occurs in 30-50% of patients with major depression, but the few prior reports of leptin measurements in this illness have shown inconsistent results."

"We, therefore, measured plasma leptin in 12 female and 8 male unipolar major depressives and 12 female and 8 male individually matched normal controls administered low-dose physostigmine (PHYSO) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) to stimulate the HPA axis," said Robert T. Rubin and colleagues at Drexel University in Pittsburgh. "The subjects underwent four test sessions 5-7 days apart: PHYSO (8 mug/kg IV); AVP (0-08 U/kg IM); PHYSO+AVP; and saline control. Serial blood samples were taken before and after pharmacologic challenge and analyzed for leptin, ACTH(1-39), cortisol and AVP. Estradiol and testosterone also were measured at each test session."

The investigators found, "PHYSO and AVP produced no side effects in approximately half the subjects and predominantly mild side effects in the other half, with no significant patient-control differences. Correlations between side effects (absent or present) after PHYSO or AVP and the corresponding leptin responses were non-significant in all groups. Baseline plasma leptin concentrations (mean[+ or -]SD) were significantly higher in the female patients compared to the female controls (22.5[+ or -]13.9 vs 12.3[+ or -]9.7 ng/mL), whereas they were similar in the male patients and the male controls (3.9[+ ...