Plasma Leptin and its Relationship with Lipid Peroxidation and Nitric Oxide in Obese Female Patients with or without Hypertension

Recent evidence suggested that leptin-induced oxidative stress in human endothelial cells in vivo and increased oxidative stress in human essential hypertension may further contribute to both the development of atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases. We investigated the association of plasma leptin levels with plasma lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide metabolites (NOx) in obese hypertensive atherosclerosis model. Plasma leptin, lipid peroxidation and NOx levels were determined in age-matched non-obese normotensive female subjects ( n = 30), obese normotensive female subjects ( n = 45), and obese hypertensive female subjects ( n = 50). Plasma leptin levels were determined by immunoradiometric method. Lipid peroxidation was determined as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) using spectrophotometric method. NOx levels were determined using enzymatic method. We found that plasma leptin and TBARS levels were increased in obesity, and obese hypertensives have significantly higher plasma leptin and TBARS levels than obese normotensives ( p