Background: The antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin, also calledLL37, has broad-spectrumrnantimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi and viruses.LL37 is the only human cathelicidinrnantimicrobial peptide encoded by the gene CAMP. It is referred to as LL37, since it has 37rnamino acid sequences starting with two leucines. There are few reports that showed its Level, prornand anti-inflammatory immunomodulatory activity of LL37 in mycobacterial infections;rntuberculosis and leprosy that indicates the need for further investigation of the role of LL37. rnObjective: To investigate the level of LL37 in different forms of leprosy.rnMethods: Across sectional study was conducted from January2017toSeptember2018 at ALERT rnhospital. A total of 74 HIV negative individuals consisting of 26 leprosy patients (11tuberculoidrnleprosy/borderline tuberculoid (TT/BT), 15 borderline lepromatous/lepromatous leprosyrn(BL/LL)), 23 Household contacts and 25 healthy controls were included in this study, byrnconvenience sampling. LL37 expression was measured at protein and mRNA level in newlyrndiagnosed leprosy patients attending ALERT hospital, their household contacts and healthyrncontrols. rnResult: Plasma level LL37 was significantly higher in household contacts compared tornlepromatous patients (p=0.017) and healthy controls (p=0.007). However, there was nornstatistically significant differences in mRNA expression level of LL37between the three groups;rnpatients and contacts (p=0.3244), patient and controls (p=0.5560), contact and controlsrn(p=0.0758) and within the two polar forms of leprosy; tuberculoid and lepromatous (p=0.3842). rnConclusion: - Our finding demonstrates that the low plasma level of LL37 in lepromatousrnpatients may give a clue why there is a delay in clearing the bacilli from their body. However,rnmeasuring the level of LL37 at the infection site would be more informative.