Circulating Spexin Levels Negatively Correlate With Age, BMI, Fasting Glucose, and Triglycerides in Healthy Adult Women.

CONTEXT

Spexin is a newly identified neuropeptide that is involved in satiety control, glucose, and lipids metabolism. It has also been related to human diseases, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. However, whether spexin changes with age or not is still unclear.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between circulating spexin levels and age and to study their interaction effects on body mass index (BMI), fasting glucose, and -lipids.

DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS

This is a cross-sectional study, including 68 healthy adult women whose ages are in a wide range (minimum: 23; median: 38.5; maximum: 64).

OUTCOME MEASURES

The serum spexin levels were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Fasting glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, urea, and creatinine were measured by routine biochemical test. Shapiro-Wilk's test, Spearman and Pearson correlation analyses, test, and two-way analysis of variance were used to interpret the data.

RESULTS

Serum spexin levels are significantly correlated with age (Spearman = -0.277, = 0.022), BMI (Spearman = -0.445, < 0.001), fasting glucose (Spearman = -0.302, = 0.014), and TG (Spearman = -0.324, = 0.008). Spexin levels independently predict the risk of high BMI and high fasting glucose. No interaction effects of spexin and age on BMI and fasting glucose were found.

CONCLUSIONS

Circulating spexin levels decrease with age, suggesting a possible role of this peptide in aging-related functions and disorders. Further investigations are needed to expand the clinical significance of this finding.