Association between serum adipoki ne profile and vascular inflammation in patients with Takayasu arteritis

Abstract

Objective To investigate the circulating levels of leptin, resistin, visfatin, total adiponectin and their relationships with disease activity and vascular inflammation in patients with Takayasu arteritis(TA). Methods Fifty-nine consecutive patients with TA and forty age-matched healthy women were enrolled. Serum adipokine levels were measured with enzyme immunoassay kits and inflammation indicators were simultane ously examined including erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR), C-reactive protein(CRP), fibrinogen, interleukin(IL)-6 and matrix metalloprotease(MMP)-3/MMP-9. The Mann-Whitney U test, χ2 test and Spearman correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis. Results The serum leptin[(25±16)ng/ml vs(7±5)ng/ml, U=300.00, P<0.01]and resistm[(11.5±8.3)ng/ml vs(2.2±1.3)ng/ml, U=120.00, P<0.01]concentrations in patients with TA were significantly higher than those in healthy control women. There were no obvious differences between the above two groups in regard to serum total adiponectin and visfatin levels. In the untreated TA subgroup, leptin showed mildly negative association with fibrinogen(r=-0.42, P=0.03), ESR(r=-0.35, P=0.03)and CRP(r=-0.36, P=0.03), but it tended to be positively related to IL-6 and MMP-3/MMP-9. In the treated subgroup, leptin was positively associated with MMP-3(r=0.86, P=0.01)to a significant extent. Furthermore, serum resistin level was found to rise independently on ESR and CRP. Conclusion Leptin and resistin may contribute to vascular inflammation and injury. They may be used as biomarkers for monitoring disease activity of TA. Key words: Adipokines; Arteritis; Vasculitis