Effect of the early-onset infections on the serum adiponectin and leptin concentrations in full-term newborns

Objective
Adiponectin and leptin play an important role in the children development, but the effect of early-onset neonatal infections on their values is not well known.

Aim
The evaluation of serum adiponectin and leptin concentrations in healthy and infected full- term newborns, according to their gender, type of delivery, birth asphyxia and kind of infection and determination of correlations between concentrations of these two hormones and anthropometric parameters.

Material and methods
The study involved 166 newborns (95 boys, 71 girls), among them 85 infected and 81 healthy. Hormone concentrations were measured between 3rd and 7th day of life by ELISA method.

Results
Septic newborns have significantly higher adiponectin concentration than healthy, and septic and local infected babies have higher leptin value than healthy, independently of their gender, anthropometric parameters, birth asphyxia and type of delivery. In healthy newborns negative correlation between adiponectin value and chest circumference, and between leptin concentration and body length was noted. Healthy female newborns haye significantly higher leptin values than boys; healthy newborns born by elective cesarean section have higher adiponectin concentration than born spontaneously. Positive correlation between adiponectin and leptin concentrations in infected newborns was stated.

Conclusions
1. Early-onset infections in full-term eutrophic newborns contribute to increase of adiponectin and leptin concentrations, independently of their gender, birth asphyxia and type of delivery. 2. In infected newborns any significant correlations between adiponectin concentrations and birth weight, body length, chest and head circumferences were noted.