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Karger Publishers, Obesity Facts, 4(12), p. 460-475, 2019

DOI: 10.1159/000501319

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Leptin Is Not Essential for Obesity-Associated Hypertension

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

<b><i>Background and Objective:</i></b> Hyperleptinemia is supposed to play a causal role in the development of obesity-associated hypertension, possibly via increased sympathetic tone. Hence patients with congenital leptin deficiency should be hypotensive and their low blood pressure should increase under leptin substitution. <b><i>Subjects and Methods:</i></b> To test this assumption, we examined ambulatory blood pressure, resting heart rate, Schellong test results, cold pressor test results, heart rate variability, catecholamine metabolites, and aldosterone levels in 6 patients with congenital leptin deficiency before as well as 2–7 days and 7–14 months after the start of leptin substitution. Ambulatory blood pressure was also examined in 3 patients with biallelic disease-causing variants in the leptin receptor gene. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Contrary to our expectations, even before leptin substitution, 1 patient with biallelic leptin receptor gene variants and 4 patients with leptin deficiency had been suffering from hypertension. Short-term substitution with leptin increased blood pressure further in 3 out of 4 patients (from 127.0 ± 11.7 to 133.8 ± 10.6 mm Hg), concomitant with an increase in resting heart rate as well as in heart rate during the Schellong test in all patients (from 87.6 ± 7.7 to 99.9 ± 11.0 bpm, <i>p</i> = 0.031, and from 102.9 ± 13.5 to 115.6 ± 11.3 bpm, <i>p</i> = 0.031, respectively). Furthermore, the systolic blood pressure response during the cold pressor test increased in 4 out of 6 patients. Unexpectedly, catecholamine metabolites and aldosterone levels did not increase. After long-term leptin substitution and weight loss, the resting heart rate decreased in 4 out of 6 patients compared to baseline, and in all patients below the heart rate seen immediately after the start of therapy (from 99.9 ± 11.0 to 81.7 ± 5.4 bpm; <i>p</i> = 0.031). <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> These results show that obesity-associated hypertension does not depend on the presence of leptin. However, short-term leptin substitution can increase the blood pressure and heart rate in obese humans with leptin deficiency, indicating that leptin plays at least an additive role in obesity-associated hypertension. The mechanisms behind this are not clear but might include an increase in regional sympathetic tone.