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Does leptin resistance contribute to infections in patients with diabetes?

University of Sri Jayawardanapura, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Gangodawila Nugegoda, Sri Lanka; lasantha_m@sltnet.lk

Keywords: cell mediated immunity; diabetes; infections; leptin; lymphocytes

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Leptin is a protein hormone structurally similar to interleukin 2, which regulates food intake and metabolic and endocrine function.¹ It also has an important regulatory role in the immune response, mainly acting as a T cell growth factor.² Moreover, it also effects cytokine production, monocyte/macrophage activation, wound healing, angiogenesis, and haemopoiesis.¹ Leptin concentrations rapidly increase during infection and inflammation. The low concentrations of leptin that can occur during starvation or malnutrition are associated with impaired cellular immunity, impaired delayed-type hypersensitivity responses, and thymic atrophy, and thereby contribute to increased susceptibility to infection.²

High leptin concentrations are seen in obese and diabetic individuals, with the concentrations of leptin rising with increasing insulin resistance.³ However, despite high leptin concentrations, these individuals have leptin resistance or defective leptin.⁴ Therefore, leptin resistance, along with many other factors, may also contribute to the increased incidence of infection seen among patients with diabetes, who are more . . . [Full text of this article]