BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between leptin and sex hormone and its correlation with exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). METHODS: Sixty-two healthy athletes (28 male and 34 female) were recruited and anthropometry data were collected including height, weight, BMI, etc. During their regular training season, fasting blood samples were taken in the morning. Blood urine nitrogen (BUN), creatine kinase (CK), testosterone (T), cortisol (Cor), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), cholesterol (CHOL), insulin, blood glucose, and glucagon were measured. RESULTS: Leptin level was correlated with BUN (r=-0.419, P=0.001), CK (r=-0.318, P=0.018), T (r=-0.522, P=0.001), Cor (r=-0.382, P=0.002), T/Cor (r=-0.365, P=0.004), TG (r=0.325, P=0.01). In male athletes, leptin was correlated with insulin (r=0.467, P=0.012), Cor (r=-0.404, P=0.033), CK (r=-0.502, P=0.011). In female participants, leptin was correlated with Cor (r=-0.587, P=0.001), Glucagon (r=-0.390, P=0.033), BUN (r=-0.436, P=0.016), T (r=-0.407, P=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the potentially divergent roles of leptin in regulating lipid metabolism, testosterone, glucose metabolism, and EIMD in male and female athletes. These results provide us the negative correlation between leptin and T in athletes, including gender differences, which indicate significant correlation of combined effect from both genders (r=-0.522, P=0.001), but only significant correlation was found in female (r=-0.407, P=0.017) when analyze different genders apart.
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