An investigation of the association between lipoxin A4 levels and metabolic syndrome parameters in patients with metabolic syndrome

Abstract

Aim: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a significant public health problem and has the potential to increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD), the risk of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), the risk of stroke and the risk of a heart attack. MS has recently been considered an inflammatory disease. Lipoxins (LXs) are, on the other hand, bioactive lipid molecules synthesized from arachidonic acid (AA) and show potent anti-inflammatory and pro-resolving activities in vivo and in vitro conditions. In this study, we aimed to evaluate serum levels of LXA4 in MS patients and explore the relationship of serum LXA4 levels with MS components [waist circumference, blood pressure, serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and triglyceride (TG) levels]. Material and Method: In this study, the sample was composed of 39 patients diagnosed with MS and 32 healthy age- and sex-matched individuals. We measured serum LXA4 levels adopting the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method with “Human Lipoxin A4 ELISA Kit”. While collecting the blood samples from the subjects, we noted their ages, sex, physical examination findings, and anthropometric measurements [height, weight, waist circumference, and body mass index (BMI)]. Additionally, we obtained their serum TG, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), HDL, glucose, and cholesterol levels. Results: While we could not find any significant differences between the groups by age and sex (p>0.05), the groups significantly differed by weight, waist circumference, BMI, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, TG, HDL, and FBG (p<0.05 for TG; p<0.001 for others). Moreover, serum levels of LXA4 significantly differed between the groups (p<0.05). Within-group comparisons showed that while serum levels of LXA4 significantly differed between male subjects (p=0.01), it was not the case for females (p>0.05). In both groups, there were negative correlations between serum LXA4 levels and waist circumference (r=-0.368 p=0.02). Yet, we found such an association only among male patients (r=-0.516 p=0.02). Conclusion: Overall, we found serum LXA4 levels to be significantly low in MS patients (p<0.05). Yet, it still needs to be elucidated whether this impairment is a cause or a result of MS. Finally, we discovered this impairment and its significant correlations with some MS parameters to be only in male patients, suggesting that serum LXA4 levels may vary by sex in MS patients.