Relationship Between Ghrelin and Leptin with Insulin Resistance in Obese Patients and Non-Obese Individuals

Experimental studies have suggested that Ghrelin and Leptin play a role in glucose homeostasis, and thus any disturbance to their action might lead to Insulin resistance, Obesity and type II Diabetes Mellitus, thus we assess the hypothesis that low Ghrelin concentration and high Leptin concentration are a risk factor for obesity and Insulin resistance. The materials and methods: One hundred people were included in this study: fifty obese patients and fifty non-obese. The mean age for the study group was (34.00±9.43) years old while that of the control group was (34.00±9.43) year's old respectively, they were classified according to their Body Mass Index after measuring their height and weight, the mean BMI of case patients was (39.23±6.71kg/m²) and (23.08±1.19 kg/m²) for the control individuals, exclusion Criteria included: history of diabetes mellitus; finding of high blood glucose on biochemical examination, history of taking drugs that cause obesity or increase in body weight such as steroids, patients with diseases of high growth hormone level such as acromegaly, pregnant women, while the investigations that were done including: Fasting blood sugar, fasting serum Ghrelin, fasting serum Leptin and fasting serum Insulin, Insulin resistance was measured using HOMA-IR module. Results showed that there is association between insulin resistance and obesity as it well known and a significant relation between fasting serum Leptin with Obesity/Insulin resistance (p value>0.05) but a non-significant relation between fasting serum Ghrelin and Obesity/Insulin Resistance (p value>0.05). Conclusion: Obesity is associated with insulin resistance with high level of fasting serum Leptin but with not high level of fasting serum Ghrelin.