Adiponectin levels may help assess the clinical repercussions of obesity irrespective of body mass index.

OBJECTIVE

Adiponectin is the major product of adipose tissue. The aim of this study was to associate adiponectin levels with adipose tissue and metabolic indices.

DESIGN

Plasma samples of 274 non-diabetic volunteers were collected to evaluate for adiponectin, inflammatory markers, insulin and lipid parameters. Body fat composition was measured by DEXA.

RESULTS

As expected, adiponectin levels correlated with body mass index (BMI) and gender but a wide scattering was evident. When the population was divided into two groups per median levels of adiponectin (11.94 μg/mL), adiponectin was correlated with various metabolic indices. Persons displaying relatively high adiponectin levels [17.7(CI:14.8-21.0]μg/mL; MEDIAN (25%-75%)] exhibited lower levels of inflammatory markers (hs-CRP, plasminogen, erythrocyte sedimentation rate), circulating lipids and markers of insulin sensitivity (fasting blood glucose, insulin, HbA1c and HOMA-IR) compared to those individuals displaying low-adiponectin levels [8.9(CI:6.9-10.6)μg/mL]. The percentage of high-adiponectin individuals decreased from 69.6% in the normal-BMI group to 36.5% in the obese-BMI group. Average adiponectin levels in the high-adiponectin normal-BMI group were significantly higher compared to the high-adiponectin obese-BMI group (p=0.014). Regarding body fat, only the individuals with high adiponectin levels in either the combined population or within the obese-BMI group displayed low levels of waist-to-hip ratio. Interestingly, high-adiponectin levels within the obese-BMI group were associated with higher legs fat than trunk fat as compared to the low-adiponectin obese-BMI group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data suggest that the distribution of adiponectin above or below a cutoff level may offer additional clinical information over and above that of BMI grouping regarding inflammatory profile, insulin-sensitivity and adiposity.