Leptin is an adipose tissue hormone regulating the food intake and energy production in humans, with a role in female reproductive functions. This hormone also plays a crucial role in animal and human studies conducted to elucidate the mechanism behind infertility in obese individual.
A review published in forthcoming issue of Human
Reproduction Update
aims to provide a perspective of physiological role of leptin, the role it
plays in human reproduction and its role as a prognostic predictor of IVF
outcome. All the articles published in PubMed till January 2015 with keywords: leptin, reproduction, infertility, IVF and controlled ovarian
stimulation were included.
Human and animal studies showed that leptin levels
communicate with CNS regarding the nutritional status. It plays a role in
reproductive function by its direct action on ovaries and indirectly by its
action on CNS.
The review also confirmed the earlier assumption that high
leptin serum /or follicular fluid leptin concentrations have correlated
negatively with cycle outcome.
It is seen that high follicular fluid leptin
(FFL) levels were associated with abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and a
lower live birth rate after IVF-ICSI. Many studies have associated high leptin
levels with poor oocyte and embryo quality, resulting in poor IVF outcome.
Circulating leptin levels are
strongly correlated with obesity, which is frequently associated with
polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a major form of dysovulatory infertility in
women, characterized by endocrine abnormalities such as hyperandrogenism and
inappropriate LH secretion.
Thus it is seen that leptin plays an important role in
nutritional status, energy production and reproduction mainly through its
action on hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian function. Further investigations are
warranted to define its precise role at cellular and molecular levels in
obesity, and insulin resistance on IVF-ICSI
outcomes. Its role as biomarker in predicting the IVF outcome also seems
promising but needs larger data before it is routinely used!
References:
https://humupd.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/12/08/humupd.dmv057.abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25439803
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