Pavel Vlad, Amend Pablo, Schmidtner Niklas, Utrata Alexander, Birner Charlotte, Schmid Stephan, Krautbauer Sabrina, Müller Martina, Mester Patricia, Buechler Christa
Department of Internal Medicine I, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Endocrinology, Rheumatology, and Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.
Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.
Biomedicines. 2024 Sep 14;12(9):2099. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12092099.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Chemerin is an adipokine involved in inflammatory and metabolic diseases, and its circulating levels have been associated with inflammatory parameters in various patient cohorts. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, which causes COVID-19, triggers inflammatory pathways. However, the association between serum chemerin levels and COVID-19 disease severity and outcomes has not been definitively established.
In this study, serum chemerin levels were analyzed in 64 patients with moderate COVID-19 and 60 patients with severe disease.
The results showed that serum chemerin levels were comparable between these two groups and slightly higher than in healthy controls. Notably, COVID-19 patients with hypertension exhibited elevated serum chemerin levels, while those with liver cirrhosis had lower levels. When patients with these comorbidities were excluded from the analyses, serum chemerin levels in COVID-19 patients were similar to those in healthy controls. Positive correlations were observed between serum chemerin levels and markers such as alkaline phosphatase, C-reactive protein, eosinophils, and lymphocytes in the entire cohort, as well as in the subgroup excluding patients with hypertension and cirrhosis. Additionally, urinary chemerin levels were comparable between COVID-19 patients and controls, and neither hypertension nor dialysis significantly affected urinary chemerin levels. Both survivors and non-survivors had similar serum and urinary chemerin levels.
In conclusion, this study suggests that comorbidities such as arterial hypertension and liver cirrhosis do have a more significant impact on serum chemerin levels than SARS-CoV-2 infection itself.
背景/目的：chemerin是一种参与炎症和代谢性疾病的脂肪因子，其循环水平与不同患者群体的炎症参数相关。导致新冠肺炎的严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2型（SARS-CoV-2）感染会触发炎症途径。然而，血清chemerin水平与新冠肺炎疾病严重程度及预后之间的关联尚未明确确立。
在本研究中，对64例中度新冠肺炎患者和60例重度患者的血清chemerin水平进行了分析。
结果显示，这两组患者的血清chemerin水平相当，且略高于健康对照组。值得注意的是，患有高血压的新冠肺炎患者血清chemerin水平升高，而患有肝硬化的患者则较低。当将患有这些合并症的患者排除在分析之外时，新冠肺炎患者的血清chemerin水平与健康对照组相似。在整个队列以及排除高血压和肝硬化患者的亚组中，均观察到血清chemerin水平与碱性磷酸酶、C反应蛋白、嗜酸性粒细胞和淋巴细胞等标志物之间存在正相关。此外，新冠肺炎患者与对照组的尿chemerin水平相当，高血压和透析均未显著影响尿chemerin水平。幸存者和非幸存者的血清和尿chemerin水平相似。
总之，本研究表明，动脉高血压和肝硬化等合并症对血清chemerin水平的影响比SARS-CoV-2感染本身更为显著。
