Serum leptin linked to knee pain in women

Although recently presented research showed levels of serum leptin were associated with knee pain in women and trended with symptomatic osteoarthritis in both men and women, leptin was not associated with radiographic osteoarthritis.

Researchers identified 690 patients who were enrolled in the longitudinal, NIH-funded, Multicenter Osteoarthritis (MOST) study. Patients had a mean age of 60.6 years and an average BMI of 29.1 kg/m². More than half of the patients (62.5%) were women.

All patients had serum leptin measured at baseline and had knee radiographs obtained at baseline and at 30 months, 60 months and 84 months. None of the patients had radiographic knee osteoarthritis (OA) at baseline based on a Kellgren-Lawrence grade of 2 or lower, and none had patellofemoral OA in either knee at baseline.

The mean serum leptin level was 37,022.5 pg/mL in women and 15,099.1 pg/mL in men, and investigators found serum leptin was associated with BMI. At 84 months, pain was present in 80 knees, radiographic OA was detected in 226 knees and symptomatic OA was present in 64 knees. Analysis revealed a significantly increased risk for knee pain in women; however, this finding did not hold true for men. Investigators found an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 4.7 for women in the highest tertile of leptin levels and an OR of 3.21 in the middle tertile of women compared with women in the lowest tertile. In men, the adjusted OR was 1.14 in the highest tertile and 0.82 in the middle tertile of leptin levels in men for knee pain. Other observations did not reach significance. - by Shirley Pulawski

Reference:

Misra D, et al. Paper #329. Presented at: American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting. Nov. 7-11, 2015; San Francisco.

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.