Open Access

ARTICLE

Serum leptin levels and their response during laparoscopic and open cholecystectomy

Anastasios J. Karayiannakis¹, Byron Asimakopoulos², Anna Efthimiadou², Alexandra K. Tsaroucha¹, Alexandros Polychronidis¹, Constantinos Simopoulos¹

1 Second Department of Surgery, Democritus University of Thrace, Medical School, 6 I. Kaviri Street, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece
2 Department of Physiology, Democritus University of Thrace, Medical School, Alexandroupolis, Greece

* Corresponding Author: Anastasios J. Karayiannakis,

European Cytokine Network 2005, 16(1), 91-96.

Abstract

We compared serum leptin responses during and after laparoscopic and open cholecystectomy, and assessed their correlation with the responses of inflammatory cytokines. Serum levels of leptin, interleukin-1a (IL-1α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-α) were measured by an enzyme-linked immunoassay in 31 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy and in 24 patients who underwent open cholecystectomy. Serum samples were obtained preoperatively, at 10 and 30 min after the commencement of surgery, and at 6 and 24 h after the operation. The cumulative responses of leptin, IL-1α, IL-6 and TNF-α to surgery were calculated and the associations between them were evaluated. Serum leptin levels were significantly increased at 24 h after both procedures. The serum leptin concentration at this time point and the cumulative leptin response were significantly lower after laparoscopic cholecystectomy than after open cholecystectomy. Changes in serum IL-1α, TNF-α and IL-6 concentrations showed similar kinetics in both groups, with postoperative IL-6 levels being consistently lower in the laparoscopic cholecystectomy group. Cumulative IL-6 and TNF-α responses were significantly lower after laparoscopic cholecystectomy than after open cholecystectomy. The cumulative responses of leptin, IL-1α and IL-6 correlated significantly with each other. Leptin may be involved in the systemic inflammatory response to surgical injury, and the postoperative leptin elevation and cumulative leptin response are significantly lower after laparoscopic cholecystectomy than after open cholecystectomy.

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Keywords

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