This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 54/6/1416    most recent HYPERTENSIONAHA.109.133074v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Nakamura, Y. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nakamura, Y. Related Collections Obesity Clinical Studies Epidemiology

(Hypertension. 2009;54:1416.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Articles

Relation of Serum Leptin to Blood Pressure of Japanese in Japan and Japanese-Americans in Hawaii

Yasuyuki Nakamura; Hirotsugu Ueshima; Nagako Okuda; Yoshitaka Murakami; Katsuyuki Miura; Yoshikuni Kita; Tomonori Okamura; Tanvir C. Turin; Beatriz Rodriguez; J. David Curb; Jeremiah Stamler for the International Study of Macro/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure, Japan and Hawaii Research Group

From the Department of Cardiovascular Epidemiology (Y.N.), Kyoto Women’s University, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan; Departments of Health Science (Y.N., H.U., N.O., K.M., Y.K., T.C.T.) and Medical Statistics (Y.M.), Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu City, Shiga, Japan; Department of Preventive Cardiology (T.O.), National Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Japan; Department of Geriatric Medicine (B.R., J.D.C.), John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii; Feinberg School of Medicine (J.S.), Northwestern University, Chicago, Ill.

Correspondence to Yasuyuki Nakamura, Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Kyoto Women’s University, 35 Imakumano Kitahiyoshi-cho, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto 605-8501, Japan. E-mail nakamury{at}kyoto-wu.ac.jp

Data from animal studies clearly indicate an association between leptin and hypertension; results of human studies are less concordant. We investigated the role of leptin in obesity-related higher blood pressure (BP) in Japanese Americans living in Hawaii and Japanese in Japan. Serum leptin and BP were examined by standardized methods in men and women ages 40 to 59 years from 2 population samples, one Japanese American in Hawaii (88 men and 94 women) and the other Japanese in central Japan (123 men and 111 women). Multiple linear regression models were used to assess role of leptin in obesity-related higher BP. Across quartiles of leptin, there were significantly higher mean body mass index levels, systolic BP, and diastolic BP for both sexes and sites (P<0.01 to 0.02). In multivariate regression analyses using all of the data combined, relations of body mass index and leptin to systolic BP and diastolic BP remained significant with the interaction term (body mass indexxlog-leptin) in the models (P<0.01 to <0.05). These findings are consistent with the inference that leptin may be an independent mediator for obesity-related elevations in BP.

Key Words: leptin • Japanese in Japan and Hawaii • obesity • body mass index • mediator • blood pressure