Reference values for leptin and adiponectin in children below the age of 10 based on the IDEFICS cohort

Abstract

on behalf of the IDEFICS consortium OBJECTIVE: To establish age-and sex-specific reference values for serum leptin and adiponectin in normal-weight 3.0-8.9-year old European children. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Blood samples for hormone analysis were taken from 1338 children of the IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of Dietary-and lifestyle-induced health Effects in Children and infantS) study cohort. Only normal-weight children aged 3.0-8.9 years were included (n = 539) in our analysis. Using the General Additive Model for Location Scale and Shape, age-and sex-specific percentiles were derived. The influence of under/overweight and obesity on the proposed reference curves based on normal-weight children was investigated in several sensitivity analyses using the sample without obese children (n = 1015) and the whole study sample (n = 1338). RESULTS: There was a negative age trend of adiponectin blood levels and a positive trend of leptin levels in boys and girls. Percentiles derived for girls were generally higher than those obtained for boys. The corresponding age-specific differences of the 97th percentile ranged from − 2.2 to 4.6 μg ml − 1 and from 2.2 to 4.8 ng ml − 1 for adiponectin and leptin, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: According to our knowledge, these are the first reference values of leptin and adiponectin in prepubertal, normal-weight children. The presented adiponectin and leptin reference curves may allow for a more differentiated interpretation of children's hormone levels in epidemiological and clinical studies.

Children's psychosocial stress and emotional eating: A role for leptin?

“…Moreover, sex differences have been revealed in leptin levels, due to testosterone‐induced leptin downregulation but also in prepubertal child populations . Sex differences are also visible in changes during follow‐up with again more pronounced increases for girls, in agreement with recently published reference curves …”

“…Hyperleptinemia was not used as a categorical variable since no clinical cut‐offs exist to define hyperleptinemia in children. Just for descriptive purposes, we used recently published sex‐ and age‐specific serum leptin reference values for non‐obese European children . When using the published 90 th percentile as cut‐off, 21 girls and 17 boys had hyperleptinemia.…”

“…Just for descriptive purposes, we used recently published sex-and age-specific serum leptin reference values for non-obese European children. 26 When using the published 90 th percentile as cut-off, 21 girls and 17 boys had hyperleptinemia. When using the published 97 th percentile as cut-off, 18 girls and 10 boys had hyperleptinemia.…”

“…39 Sex differences are also visible in changes during follow-up with again more pronounced increases for girls, in agreement with recently published reference curves. 26…”

Plasma Adipokines Profile in Prepubertal Children with a History of Prematurity or Extrauterine Growth Restriction

“…As the EUGR group, PREM children were evaluated at prepubertal age. The control group consisted of 123 prepubertal children meeting the following inclusion criteria: born at term with adequate birth weight for GA (2500-3500 g, [38][39][40][41][42] week's GA) and born in the same period as children in the other two groups, without underlying conditions and any remarkable disease history. These children attended the hospital's Outpatients Unit at prepubertal age, on suspicion of mild illness that was later ruled out and requiring blood tests.…”