The correlation between leptin level and disease activity, osteoporosis and quality of life in systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease leading to fibrosis of skin and internal organs. During the disease progress, osteoporosis may also be seen. Leptin, however, is a hormone of hydrophilic peptid nature, and there are many studies reporting the relationship of leptin with inflammation. Also, there exist some other studies exhibiting its relationship with osteoporosis. While scanning the literature, we found only one study to investigate leptin levels in SSc in which the correlation between leptin and inflammation was researched.In this study, we aimed to determine the correlation between leptin level and disease activity and osteoporosis.A total of 60 subjects were included in this study as patient and control groups, each comprising 28 female and 2 male subjects of 30 cases in the patient group, 14 were determined o be active, 16 to be inactive when evaluated in terms of disease activity.Leptin levels of cases in both group patient and control groups were evaluated by ELISA method. No statistically significant difference was determined between patient and control groups in terms of leptin levels (p=0.179). Surprisingly, leptin levels in active patients were significantly low with respect to those in inactive patients (p=0.02). There was no correlation between leptin and ESR, CRP inflammation markers. In patient group, bone densitometry parameters were significantly lower than those of controls (p<0.05). Ther was no correlation between leptin and bone densitometry parameters (p>0.05). Vitamin D, however, was significantly positive correlation was seen (p=0.023). In patient group SF-36 parameters were significantly lower than those of controls (p<0.05).In conclusion, diminishing of leptin level in active patients significantly with respect to inactive patients bring to minf that leptin can be used as an activity marker in systemic sclerosis. There was no effect of leptin on osteoporosis in patients with systemic sclerosis. We determined that quality of life was affected negatively in patients with systemic sclerosis. On this subject-matter more extensive studies to be carried out with larger series are required.