An inverse association between serum leptin concentration and reported alcohol intake in patients with manifest vascular disease

Abstract

Background/Objectives: It has been reported that alcohol stimulates appetite. We aimed to establish the association between leptin, as a major food intake regulating factor, and alcohol intake in patients with chronic manifest coronary artery or cerebrovascular disease. Subjects/Methods: A cross-sectional study of 820 subjects after acute coronary syndrome, coronary revascularization or after first ischemic stroke (the Czech part of EUROASPIRE III surveys). Leptin concentrations were evaluated among predefined categories of reported weekly alcohol intake: abstainers, light drinkers (up to 2 drinks weekly, 1-44 g of pure alcohol), mild regular drinkers (3-14 drinks weekly, 45-308 g) and moderate or heavy drinkers (more than 15 drinks, X309 g of alcohol). Results: Leptin showed a clear negative trend among the alcohol intake categories. Mild regular drinkers showed significantly lower leptin levels (9.3(8.2) ng/ml) compared with abstainers (18.7(18.7) ng/ml, Po0.0001) and light occasional drinkers (14.2(17.8) ng/ml, P ¼ 0.00064). The negative association between leptin and alcohol intake as a dependent variable remained significant even after adjustment for potential confounders in multiple linear regression analysis (P ¼ 0.00032). Conclusions: Drinking of small amounts of alcohol was, in our setting, associated with decreased serum leptin concentration, with a possible benefit in terms of cardiovascular risk.

Obesity, energy balance and spermatogenesis

“…Experiments in rats showed that consumption of a 6% ethanol solution during 28 days resulted in a significant elevation of serum leptin (Pravdova et al 2009). However, a cross-sectional study enrolling 820 subjects after acute coronary syndrome, coronary revascularisation or first ischaemic stroke, reported that drinking small amounts of alcohol was associated with decreased serum leptin concentrations with possible benefits in terms of cardiovascular risk (Mayer et al 2010). In addition, chronic alcoholic individuals depict very low leptin concentrations (Santolaria et al 2003) that have been attributed to the malnutrition that occurs in these patients with reduced fat tissue mass.…”