Serum levels of the adipokine visfatin are increased in pre‐eclampsia

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a serious cardiovascular complication in pregnancy which shares risk factors with the metabolic syndrome including insulin resistance and obesity. Recently, visfatin was introduced as a novel insulin-mimetic adipokine which is up-regulated when weight is gained. In the current study, we investigated visfatin serum levels in pre-eclamptic patients as compared to healthy gestational age-matched controls. PATIENTS AND MEASUREMENTS: Visfatin was quantified by ELISA in control (n = 20) and PE (n = 15) patients. Furthermore, visfatin was correlated to clinical and biochemical measures of renal function, glucose and lipid metabolism, as well as inflammation. RESULTS: Mean maternal visfatin serum levels adjusted for maternal age were about twofold up-regulated in PE (31.1 +/- 23.4 microg/l) as compared to controls (15.7 +/- 23.1 microg/l). Furthermore, visfatin concentrations correlated positively with age, blood pressure, creatinine, free fatty acids (FFA), IL-6 and C reactive protein (CRP), whereas a negative correlation was found with fasting insulin and the HOMA-insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR). In multivariate analyses, HOMA-IR and CRP remained independently associated with visfatin serum levels and explained 58% of the variation in visfatin concentrations. CONCLUSIONS: We show that maternal visfatin levels are significantly increased in PE patients. Furthermore, insulin sensitivity and inflammatory status independently predict serum visfatin levels.