Background: Leptin is a pleiotropic hormone that is involved in the regulation of food intake and body weight. Recent findings demonstrated that leptin receptors are present in the pancreas but the involvement of leptin in pancreatitis remains unknown. The aim of the present study was: (1) to assess plasma leptin levels in rats with caerulein-induced pancreatitis (CIP) and humans with acute pancreatitis; and (2) to determine the effects of exogenous leptin on the course of acute CIP in rats Methods: CIP was produced in Wistar rats by s.c. infusion of 5 µg of caerulein for 5 h. Plasma leptin was measured by specific RIA and leptin expression in the pancreas was determined at the transcriptional and protein levels. In addition, the effects of exogenous leptin at the doses of 1 or 10 µg/kg i.p. on the course of CIP and the plasma levels and mRNA expression in pancreas of cytokines TNFα and IL-4 were studied. Furthermore, pancreatic cNOS and iNOS expression at mRNA level were measured in rats with CIP and pretreated with leptin. Parallel to these studies, the plasma levels of leptin were measured in 15 patients with acute edematous pancreatitis and in 30 healthy controls of comparable age and body mass index. Results: In rats, plasma leptin rose significantly from the median of 0.14 (0.03–0.3 ng/ml) in the control group to 0.56 (0.2–3.2 ng/ml) in rats with CIP. The CIP was associated with an upregulation of mRNA and protein for leptin in the pancreas. The administration of exogenous leptin significantly reduced the weight of pancreas, histological manifestations of pancreatitis, plasma TNFα and mRNA expression for iNOS in the pancreatic tissue. The assessment of leptin plasma level in humans demonstrated significantly higher median values of plasma leptin in patients with acute pancreatitis [7.5 (4.3–18.4 ng/ml)] than in healthy controls [2.1 (1.0–11.8 ng/ml)]. Conclusions: (1) Acute pancreatitis in rats and in humans is associated with a marked increase in the plasma level of leptin. (2) The transcriptional upregulation of leptin in the pancreas after induction of pancreatitis indicates that the inflammed pancreas could be the source of local production of leptin. (3) Exogenous leptin protects the pancreas against development of acute CIP in rats and one possible mechanism of action of leptin might be attributed to the activation of nitric oxide pathway.

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