International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism
Non-obese and obese subjects with type 2 diabetes of either African origin living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (n=22) or Caucasian origin living in Malmo, Sweden (n=24) were studied by taking a fasting sample for analysis of insulin and leptin after an overnight fast. All subjects were treated with metformin alone or with sulfonylurea with or without addition of metformin.
It was found that age, BMI, waist circumference,blood pressure and fasting glucose or insulin did not differ between Africans and Caucasians, when divided into obese and nonobese subjects. However, leptin levels were 50/., higher in the African subjects than in the Caucasians, when controlled for gender and BMI (P=O.01).
We conclude that both in non-obese and obese subjects with type 2 diabetes, leptin levels are higher among subjects of African origin than of Caucasian origin. This may be related to higher risk of cardiovascular diseases in these subjects.
© 2004, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
Purchasing Reprints
