Relationships between Neuropeptide Y and Leptin in Patients with Essential Hypertension

Objective To study the relationships of neuropeptide Y and leptin in patients with essential hypertension. Methods Radioimmunoassay was used to detect the fasting plasma neuropeptide Y （NPY） and Leptin （LE） in 26 healthy control subjects and hypertensive patients 1 grade （n42）, 2 grade （n46） and 3 grade （n28）. Results Both of LE and NPY plasma concentrations were increased with the increases of blood pressure （F40.2 and 31.4; P＜0.001）. Correlation analyses showed that both NPY and LE were positively correlated with SBP and DBP. After adjustment for LE, NPY were still positively correlated with SBP and DBP （P＜0.05）. However, after adjustment for NPY, no correlation between LE and blood pressure was found（P＞0.05）. The plasma NPY concentrations were positively related with plasma LE （R0.559, P＜0.0001）. After adjustment for sex, blood pressure, blood lipid, BMI and HOMA-IR, the plasma NPY concentrations were still positively correlated with plasma LE concentrations （R0.337, P＜0.0001）. Conclusion There were LE resistance in hypertensive patients, and it may be contributed to the increases in NPY. The increased plasma NPY concentrations may augment blood pressure, on the other hand it many enhance the leptin resistance.