Metabolic Syndrome Patients Have Lower Levels of Adropin When Compared With Healthy Overweight/Obese and Lean Subjects

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome (MetS), a cluster of cardiometabolic risk factors, is a challenging public health issue. The aim of current study was to test the hypothesis that concentrations of plasma adropin and leptin differ between patients with MetS and comparable age-and sex-matched control groups. This case-control study involved 153 subjects (51 per group). The study group included obese subjects with MetS and the two control groups included weightmatched subjects without MetS ("healthy": obese) and normal weight subjects without MetS. Body composition parameters were measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Plasma levels of adropin, leptin, and their ratio were measured. Leptin was significantly different between obese patients with/without MetS groups and normal weight subjects. Patients with MetS had higher levels of leptin (14 ± 12.4) compared with those without MetS (11.2 ± 9.3 vs. 7 ± 7.1 obese and normal weight without MetS, respectively; p = .002). Compared with healthy obese and normal weight subjects, MetS subjects had lower levels of plasma adropin (p < .001) and a lower plasma adropin to leptin ratio (p < .001), which remained significant when adjusted for body fat mass by analysis of covariance (p < .001). This study demonstrates low levels of adropin are correlated with MetS and hence identify it as a potentially protective agent against MetS development. Variation in adropin levels may partly explain the "healthy obese" phenomenon.

Association between dietary inflammatory index and components of metabolic syndrome

“…When we considered components of MetS, we observed that adherence to a diet with high inflammatory potential was positively associated with reduced levels of HDL-C. No other significant association was observed between DII and other components of MetS. Similar to our findings, a cross-sectional study conducted by Yosaee et al, indicated that higher scores of DII were associated with greater odds for having reduced concentrations of HDL-C. 5 In another study, Pimenta et al reported an inverse association between the inflammatory potential of diet and serum levels of HDL-C. 18 In opposite with our results, Naja et al found no significant association between DII and serum levels of HDL. 32 Such non-significant association was also reported in two other studies.…”

“…32 Such non-significant association was also reported in two other studies. 5,33 This discrepancy might be explained by different confounders which were adjusted in previous studies. For instance, in the study of Naja et al that found no significant association between DII and HDL concentrations, BMI as an important confounder was not controlled, 32 but in our study, we adjusted for BMI and found a significant positive association between DII and reduced levels of HDL.…”

“…3 The etiology of MetS is not well known, however, it has been shown that a combination of genetic and environmental factors contribute to this syndrome. 4,5 Among environmental factors, diet has an important role in MetS development. 6 Previous studies have revealed that dietary intake of red meat, cholesterol, saturated and trans-fatty acids and iron-containing foods is positively associated with the risk of MetS.…”

Adropin as A Fat-Burning Hormone with Multiple Functions—Review of a Decade of Research

“…In contrast, in mice with high-fat diet-induced obesity, serum adropin levels are low (<1 ng/mL). An inverse correlation of adropin levels and body mass index (BMI) was also confirmed by human studies [4,[12][13][14][15][16][17]], suggesting that a low level of adropin is a hallmark of obesity. Nevertheless, a recent detailed study showed that this association should be interpreted cautiously.…”

Serum Adropin and Adipose Fatty-Acid Binding Protein at 6th Week of Pregnancy Are Significant Predictors for Development of Insulin Resistance at the 24th Week.

“…Zhang et al (50) found IR index is a negative independent risk factor of ADR levels in obese adolescents. Yosaee et al (51) reported that subjects with metabolic syndrome had significantly lower ADR levels and adropin/leptin ratio and ADR levels were correlated with metabolic syndrome and hence is a potentially protective agent against its development. (47) considered the high ADR levels as one of the multiple adaptive responses on adverse glucose metabolism during pregnancy; however, Hill (52) documented that as gestation progresses several parallel mechanisms contribute to increasing maternal β-cell mass through reactivation of β-cell proliferation and an expansion and differentiation of resident β-cell progenitors and these pathways could potentially be modulated during pregnancy to increase β-cell mass and prevent the onset of GDM.…”