Higher Serum RCAN2 Levels Are Associated with Metabolically Unhealthy Individuals, Either with Obesity or Not

Abstract

Background: Regulator of calcineurin 2 (RCAN2) has been documented to cause weight gain and related pathology and metabolism abnormalities in animal researches. The aim of the study was to compare serum RCAN2 concentrations in metabolically healthy (MH) and metabolically unhealthy (MUH) individuals.Methods: 872 subjects (581 MH and 291 MUH) were recruited to the study. Basic anthropometric, metabolic parameters and concentration of RCAN2 were measured. Results: Serum RCAN2 levels differ between MH and MUH subjects (9.22 ± 3.21 vs. 11.09 ± 5.01 ng/mL, p < 0.001). Circulating RCAN2 level was an independent predictor of MUH compared with MH group (9.3% higher rate of MUH incidence per 1 ng/mL increment of RCAN2) after adjust other potentially confounding variables. Higher serum RCAN2 levels were significantly correlated with SBP, FBG, WHR. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis suggested that serum RCAN2 [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.615, 95% CI 0.575-0.655, p < 0.001] might be used as a candidate biomarker for MUH. Men had considerably greater RCAN2 levels than female in the MH group, but this difference was not significant in the MUH group.Conclusion: Higher circulating RCAN2 levels are associated with MUH individuals regardless of the BMI status.