Leptin-related polymorphisms and SLE

Leptin is a hormone/cytokine that is mainly produced by adipocytes and has a range of actions that span from the control of metabolic balance to the modulation of adaptive and innate immune responses. Many investigations have indicated that the pro-inflammatory activities of leptin can contribute significantly to the promotion and maintenance of autoimmune responses. It is not known whether the abnormal elevation of leptin in patients with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) - an autoimmune disease characterized by multi-organ involvement and the presence of autoantibodies – can reflect the chronic inflammatory status of the disease or contributes to the pathogenesis of the disease. To partly address this question, a recent investigation analyzed several leptin-related gene polymorphisms in SLE in large numbers of individuals from different ancestral groups. The study identified weak associations with certain SNPs that did not remain significant after correction for multiple testing. This review discusses the implications of those findings for the pathogenesis of SLE and for the possibility of leptin-based modalities of therapeutic intervention in the disease.