Author(s)

Mohamed Abdelaziz Youssry^1*, Mohamed Amin Gabreel², Tabarak Ahmed Patel³

¹Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Faculty of medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
²Pediatrics Department, Faculty of medicine, Al Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
³Clinical Pathology Department, IBN SINA College Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine changes in maternal serum leptin level during pregnancy and after labor in preeclamptic patients compared to healthy pregnant women. Furthermore, to investigate whether maternal serum leptin levels are correlated to the clinical characteristics and laboratory parameters of the study participants, and the possible correlation between maternal and neonatal leptin levels. Subjects and Methods: In this case control study, a total number of fifty five pregnant women in third trimester of pregnancy (≥28 weeks) were recruited. All of them were of the same age, body mass index, and gestational age. After a detailed obstetrical and medical history, they were divided into 2 groups. Group (A) 30 pregnant women with preeclampsia, and Group (B) 25 normotensive pregnant women. Results: During pregnancy, maternal serum leptin levels were significantly higher 41.0 ± 9.78 ng/ml in preeclamptic group compared to control group 24.6 ± 3.64 ng/ml (p = 0.007). After labor, it decreased significantly in both groups to 15.3 ± 3.19, and 11.2 ± 2.68 ng/ml respectively (p = 0.001, 0.002). In group (A) there were significant positive correlations between maternal serum leptin and diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.419, p = 0.021), total cholesterol (r = 0.383, p = 0.026), and uric acid (r = 0.424, p = 0.012) compared to controls, and no significant correlations were found between maternal serum leptin and body mass index, neonatal birth weight or cord leptin level in both groups. Conclusion: Maternal serum leptin is significantly increased in preeclamptic patients compared with normal pregnant women independent of body mass index. There is strong evidence that placenta, rather than maternal adipose tissue is responsible for that. In addition, maternal serum leptin levels were found to correlate positively with diastolic blood pressure, uric acid, and total cholesterol, but not correlated with body mass index, cord blood leptin and birth weight.

Preeclampsia, Body Mass Index, Leptin

Youssry, M. , Gabreel, M. and Patel, T. (2016) Changes in Maternal Serum Leptin Levels during Pregnancy and after Labor in Preeclampsia, and Its Correlation to Neonatal Cord Leptin. Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 6, 588-600. doi: 10.4236/ojog.2016.610074.