Circulating leptin levels are associated with physical activity or physical fitness in Japanese

Environ Health Prev Med (2014) 19:362366 DOI 10.1007/s12199-014-0398-2

SHORT COMMUNICATION

Circulating leptin levels are associated with physical activity or physical tness in Japanese

Nobuyuki Miyatake Haruka Murakami

Ryoko Kawakami Izumi Tabata Motohiko Miyachi

The NEXIS Study Group

Received: 28 April 2014 / Accepted: 24 June 2014 / Published online: 22 July 2014 The Japanese Society for Hygiene 2014

AbstractObjective The aim of this study was to evaluate the link between circulating leptin levels and physical activity and/ or physical tness in apparently healthy Japanese. Methods A total of 85 men and 111 women who were not taking any medication were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Circulating leptin levels, physical activity measured by tri-axial accelerometers and peak oxygen uptake were evaluated. We also assessed anthropometric data, blood pressure, blood examinations and energy intake.

Results Circulating leptin levels were 3.2 2.3 ng/mL in men and 5.9 3.8 ng/mL in women. Circulating leptin levels were signicantly and positively correlated with body weight, body mass index, abdominal circumference, insulin and the homeostasis model assessment index, and signicantly and negatively correlated with peak oxygen uptake in both sexes. Stepwise multiple regression showed that peak oxygen uptake in men and physical activity evaluated by P metabolic equivalents h per week

METs h=w in women were determinant factors for

circulating leptin levels after adjusting for confounding factors.

Keywords Leptin Japanese Physical activity Peak

oxygen uptake Tri-axial accelerometer

Introduction

Leptin [1] is primarily expressed by adipose tissue and is one of the major adipocytokines. Recombinant leptin reduces food intake and body weight in both human and mouse models through its effect on the central nervous system [24]. In addition, in clinical practice, circulating leptin levels are positively associated with the damage to the arterial walls, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome risk factors in both young people and adults [58].

It is well known that physical activity and/or physical tness are closely linked to metabolic disorders [911]. Sawada et al. [12] reported that a low cardiorespiratory tness level is an important risk factor for incidence of type 2 diabetes among Japanese men by prospective cohort study. Sandvik et al. [13] also showed that physical tness was a graded, independent, long-term predictor of mortality due to cardiovascular causes in healthy, middle-aged men....