European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Introduction: Prostate cancer is a disease of men. An early observation reports that more than 65% of all prostate cancers are diagnosed in men over the age of 65. Current advances in molecular techniques have provided new tools facilitating the discovery of new biomarkers for prostate cancer. High levels of leptin have been significantly correlated with testosterone and Prostate specific antigen values in subjects with Prostate Cancer compared with subjects in the control group. Adiponectin is the most abundant circulating adipokine and accounts for 0.05% of the total plasma proteins. As a consequence of these observations, and its inhibitory role on the growth of breast and endometrial Cancer cells ,it can be labelled as an Anti-Cancer Adipokine. Interleukin (IL)-6 is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that is expressed in prostate tumors and in the stromal tumor micro-environment. It is known to regulate proliferation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and differentiation. Material and Methods: This Observational study was conducted among 120 Males, aged above 50 years, out of which 60 were prostate cancer patients and 60 were Healthy controls, who attended the O.P at Dr. VRK Women's Medical College, Teaching Hospital and Research Centre. Men were excluded at baseline, if they had a history of myocardial infarction, stroke, transient ischemic attack, unstable angina, cancer or current renal or liver disease, peptic ulcer, gout, or use of platelet-active agents, vitamin A, or β-carotene supplements. Serum samples of men with prostate cancer based on high prostate specific antigen (PSA),biopsy and/or abnormal DRE  and those of healthy controls were collected after an overnight fast and analysed on the same day. Serum PSA and IL-6 levels were estimated using ELISA. Plasma adiponectin and leptin concentrations were measured by competitive RIA.  Results: In our study, 60 Males were Cases of Prostate Cancer and 60 were Healthy Control group. The age of the patients was almost similar in both Cases of Prostate Cancer (66.23±7.25) and Control group (61.01 ± 7.81). The PSA (ng/ml) level was significantly (<0.001) higher in PCa patients (7.12±0.80) as compared to control group (0.93±0.84). Similarly, the Interleukin-6 level was significantly (<0.001) higher in PCa patients (9.71±0.75) as compared to control group (5.9±0.61). In our study, Leptin (ng/mL) level of Prostate cancer group was 13.31±0.84 which was higher when compared to control group where it was 7.52±0.74. Adiponectin (µg/mL) Levels of Prostate cancer group were 11.72±2.34 which was lower compared to control group where it was 16.25 ±2.73. Conclusion These data further support a relationship between elevated IL-6 and prostate cancer disease prognosis. IL-6 correlates with rising PSA levels and extent of disease, and thus can be used in conjunction with other disease indicators. The multifaceted role of adiponectin in regulating several hallmark pathways that drive cancer growth suppression has been proposed in various studies. Adiponectin is an adipose tissue-derived polypeptide hormone, that in addition, to its anti-diabetic and anti-atherogenic effects also exerts anti-angiogenic properties and therefore it can be used as a target for anti Cancer therapy. On the other hand, leptin would affect PCa growth by means of factors related with obesity such as testosterone and could influence cell differentiation and Prostate Cancer progession.

Background: Leptin, an adipokine known for its anti obesity action also has a direct effect in maintaining blood pressure of an individual. Many studies have proposed the significant relation of high plasma leptin levels with high blood pressure. A significant association was found between a tetranucleotide repeat polymorphism (TTTC)n in the 3’UTR of leptin gene with essential hypertension in several populations. So we wanted to conduct a study to know the relationship of (TTTC)n repeat polymorphism in 3’UTR of Leptin gene with Essential hypertension in our population and its relation to serum leptin levels. Methods: A case-control study was done in our tertiary care hospital for one and a half years. Polymerase chain reaction was carried out and the products were visualized after running in 2% agarosegel electrophoresis. The alleles of this tetranucleotide polymorphism were classified as shorter form- class I and longer form class-II. Serum leptin levels were measured by ELISA. Result: It was found that Class I allele was more frequent in hypertensives when compared to controls(p<0.001). Class I/I genotype had significant association with essential hypertension even after adjusting for BMI(p<0.000). The difference in serum leptin levels between hypertensives and apparently healthy controls in our study was statistically significant even after adjusting for influence of obesity (p=0.015). This difference was in line with many other studies. However we could not find a significant association of serum leptin levels with this tetranucleotide repeat polymorphism. Conclusion: We found a significant association of (TTTC)n repeat polymorphism in 3’UTR of Leptin gene with Essential hypertension in this study.