Objective: Uterine leiomyomas are the most common benign tumors of reproductive age women with symptoms of bleeding, pain, pressure and consequences on reproduction. Obestatin is a recently discovered secreted peptide encoded by the preproghrelin gene. The role of obestatin in the regulation of metabolism is still under debate. In this article, we investigate the use of biomarker in patients with uterine leiomyoma. Our goal is to study the obestatin as a biomarker for the diagnosis and monitoring of uterine leiomyoma.
 Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted between January 2015–June 2015 in outpatient gynecology clinic of Zekai Tahir Burak Women’s Health Education and Research Hospital, Ankara. A total of 82 women were recruited as 48 with uterine leiomyoma and 34 healthy controls.The obestatin levels were reviewed prospectively.
 Results: The obestatin levels of study group was lower than the control group (1.91±2.64 pg/mL vs. 3.58±4.81 pg/mL, p ꓿.009). The obestatin levels without normal distribution, Mann–Whitney U-test was performed for two independent groups.
 Conclusion: Increased obestatin characterized obesity in women, supporting the hypothesis that the imbalance of obestatin may have a role in the pathophysiology of leiomyoma due to obesity. On the other hand, some relevant differences between our data on circulating blood levels of obestatin in normal-weight women who had leiomyoma subjects and those reported in the few studies published so far imply that further extensive research in this new area is needed.
Read full abstract