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Clore Laboratory: News
Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Research
15 February 2007 – Jon Arch comment on leptin paper published in Diabetologia
A letter from Jon Arch has been published in Diabetologia commenting on a paper in the same journal by MI Schmidt et al entitled ‘Leptin and incident type 2 diabetes: risk or protection?’ The authors had found that leptin levels that are adjusted for obesity and fasting insulin predict reduced risk of diabetes whereas without these adjustments leptin levels predict increased risk.
The authors had argued that obesity causes leptin resistance, which in turn causes high leptin levels, and that leptin resistance is a cause of diabetes. Jon Arch argues in his letter that obesity causes high leptin levels and it is this that causes leptin resistance. Nevertheless, the more leptin that is produced for a given level of obesity the less likely it is that an individual will develop diabetes.
The reference to the published comment is:
Jonathan RS Arch. Comment on: ‘Schmidt MI, Duncan BB, Vigo A et al. (2006) Leptin and incident type 2 diabetes: risk or protection? Diabetologia 49:2086-2096.’ Diabetologia. 2007 Jan;50(1):239–240. doi:10.1007/s00125-006-0523-x. Epub 2006 Nov 10.