Increased intestinal mucosal leptin levels in patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome

Table 1 Demographics, clinical characteristics, and visceral sensitivity of irritable bowel syndrome patients and healthy controls

	IBS-D	Controls	P value
Demographic and clinical feature
N	42	20	NA
Age (yr)	29.4 ± 4.3	28.9 ± 5.1	0.673
Gender (male: female)	9:5	3:2	0.744
Body mass index (kg/m2)	22.5 ± 2.5	22.1 ± 2.2	0.553
Duration of disease (yr)	3.5 (3.3)	NA	NA
Questionnaire
IBS Symptom Severity Scale	225.0 (50.0)	NA	NA
IBS-specific Quality of Life	76.5 (17.3)	100.0 (1.1)	< 0.001
Hamilton Anxiety Scale	6.5 (3.3)	2.0 (2.0)	< 0.001
Hamilton Depression Scale	7.0 (3.0)	3.0 (2.0)	< 0.001
Visceral sensitivity
First sensation threshold (mL)	50.6 (25.9)	80.5 (18.6)	< 0.001
Defecating sensation threshold (mL)	91.5 (29.3)	155.0 (21.1)	< 0.001
Maximum sensation threshold (mL)	163.2 (71.2)	226.2 (39.3)	< 0.001

The data are expressed as mean ± SD, or median (interquartile range). IBS-D: Irritable bowel syndrome; NA: Not applicable.

Table 2 Correlation between leptin level and clinical and experimental parameters in irritable bowel syndrome patients

	Leptin expression	Leptin mRNA
Questionnaire
IBS-SSS	0.417 (0.006)1	0.678 (< 0.001)
HAMA	0.540 (< 0.001)	0.675 (< 0.001)
HAMD	0.488 (0.001)	0.589 (< 0.001)
Visceral sensitivity
First sensation	-0.438 (0.004)1	-0.604 (< 0.001)
Defecating sensation	-0.654 (< 0.001)	-0.480 (0.001)
Maximum tolerance	-0.576 (< 0.001)	-0.706 (< 0.001)
Mucosal parameter
Mast cell activation rate (%)	0.510 (0.001)	0.430 (0.005)1
Leptin mRNA	0.666 (< 0.001)	NA
Leptin expression	NA	0.666 (< 0.001)

¹Without significance after Bonferroni correction (adjusted P < 0.0038). Spearman’s correlation coefficients are expressed with P values in parentheses. IBS-D: Iirritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea; IBS-SSS: IBS Symptom Severity Scale; HAMA: Hamilton Anxiety Scale; HAMD: Hamilton Depression Scale; NA: Not applicable.