LEP and atherosclerosis: Although intima-media thickness of the carotid artery did not significantly differ between groups (lean, 1.06 ± 0.60 mm; overweight, 0.99 ± 0.45 mm; p = 0.456), it could be speculated that the overweight subjects in our study had less advanced atherosclerosis, and were thus able to respond to the vasodilator effect of moderately elevated plasma leptin levels at the time of FMD measurement.