Adiponectin (ACRP30), an adipocyte-secreted protein encoded by the APM1 gene, is known to modulate insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis, those effects protecting obese mice from diabetes.
We measured circulating adiponectin levels and risk factors for atherosclerosis in 45 healthy first-degree relatives of type 2 diabetic subjects (FDR) as well as 40 healthy control subjects (CON) without a known family history of diabetes.
There were no differences among the genotypes of the adiponectin gene regarding age, duration of diabetes, body mass index (BMI), hemoglobin A(1c) (HbA(1c)), serum lipids, serum creatinine, and plasma adiponectin levels.
The complex aetiology of Type 2 diabetes, which probably involves a medley of molecular mechanisms, requires dissection out of diabetes-associated subphenotypes, such as the non-obese with increased liver fat or the obese with low plasma adiponectin.
These results facilitate the understanding of molecular mechanisms of adiponectin actions and obesity-linked diseases such as diabetes and atherosclerosis and propose the molecular targets for anti-diabetic and anti-atherogenic drugs.
In offspring of diabetic parents, a population at high risk of diabetes and atherosclerotic disease, there is no relationship between total or %HMW adiponectin and endothelium-dependent vasodilation.
AdipoR1 and adiponectin expression was associated in lean (r=0.943, P<0.005) and obese non-diabetic patients (r=0.74, P<0.01), whereas a positive correlation between adipoR2 and adiponectin expression was only found in the presence of diabetes (r=0.883, P<0.002).
The present prospective investigation provides further evidence for a protective role of adiponectin gene variation in the risk of ischemic stroke that was independent of the presence of diabetes.
Adiponectin (Adipo), an adipocyte hormone involved in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism, has already been identified as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of diabetes.
Adiponectin values did not differ among these two genotypes even when categorized based on their diabetes status (normal glucose tolerance Pro12Pro 7.9 vs. Pro12Ala 7.7 microg/ml, P = 0.994; diabetes Pro12Pro 4.7 vs. Pro12Ala 5.4 microg/ml, P = 0.622).
Adiponectin has demonstrated insulin-sensitizing, antiatherogenic, and anti-inflammatory properties, and may be an important risk factor for coronary heart disease and diabetes.