Korean J Obes.  2009 Mar;18(1):15-23.

The Relationship between Plasma Visfatin Level, Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in Women Without Diabetes

• Kim JH
• Cho GJ
• Choi KM
• Han JH
• Yoon D
• Kim SM

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Visfatin is known to be secreted from visceral adipose tissue and have insulin-mimetic effect. Therefore, visfatin is considered to be related to obesity, especially central obesity, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. However, results confirming these theories are not available. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between obesity, metabolic syndrome and serum visfatin concentration.
METHODS
Total of 85 subjects were recruited. They were females of 30 to 60 years of aged who were not diagnosed as diabetics. The subjects were divided into normal weight group and obese group. They were further divided into with or without metabolic syndrome groups. The serum visfatin levels of each group were compared. The correlation between serum visfatin concentration and biologic profiles were analyzed. Multiple linear regression analysis was done. All subjects were divided into 4 groups according to serum visfatin levels. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and various variables related to metabolic syndrome of each group were compared.
RESULTS
The serum visfatin in the obese group was significantly higher than that of the normal weight group (P = 0.002). There was no significant difference in serum visfatin between with and without metabolic syndrome groups (P = 0.340). The serum visfatin had correlation with weight, body mass index, waist and hip circumference. There was no significant correlation between serum visfatin levels and prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Prevalence of high blood pressure, however, had a significant correlation with serum visfatin levels.
CONCLUSION
Obesity, especially central obesity, had a significant association with serum visfatin concentration but failed to show any significant correlation with either metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance.

Keyword

Visfatin; Metabolic syndrome X; Insulin resistance

MeSH Terms

Aged
Body Weight
Female
Hip
Humans
Hypertension
Insulin
Insulin Resistance
Intra-Abdominal Fat
Linear Models
Metabolic Syndrome X
Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase
Obesity
Obesity, Abdominal
Plasma
Prevalence
Insulin
Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase