This finding together with the positive association of chemerin and leptin with markers of insulin resistance, suggests that these adipokines and more especially chemerin and leptin accompanied by their adipose tissue expression could contribute to the increased insulin resistance and low grade inflammation that characterizes GDM-obese women.
Impaired appetite regulation, in terms of elevated insulin levels and decreased leptin levels, occurs in early psychosis, before antipsychotic treatment.
Further, we document here the efficacy of leptin replenishment in vivo, especially by supplying it to the hypothalamus with the aid of gene therapy, in preventing the antecedent pathophysiological sequalae--hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance and hyperglycemia--in various animal models and clinical paradigms of diabetes type 1 and 2 with or without attendant obesity.
A constellation of loss of satiety and a reduction of the metabolic rate, thermogenesis, and physical activity as well as increased vagal tone and hyperinsulinism with insulin and leptin resistance results in rapid weight gain due to a decreased energy expenditure and increased energy storage in adipose cells.
Analyses of metabolic parameters in maternal venous and umbilical venous plasma revealed significantly increased insulin and leptin as well as slightly increased glucose and TNF-α values in the obese and obese-GDM groups.
Serum leptin levels were unchanged by hyperinsulinemia for 3 h during the clamp prior to the fast, while hyperinsulinemia for 3 h after 6 days of fasting increased serum leptin by 25% (P < 0.01).
Consistent with this idea, CNTF treatment of ob/ob mice, which lack functional leptin, was found to reduce the adiposity, hyperphagia, and hyperinsulinemia associated with leptin deficiency.
The presence of hyperleptinemia without hyperinsulinemia suggests a probable inherent genetic basis for increased leptin resistance in patients with DS.