Serum adipokines and gene polymorphisms in peripheral vascular disease

Abstract Objectives Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) is an atherosclerotic disease by the occlusion of arteries in the lower extremities. Buerger’s disease is autoimmune due to inflammation of small and medium-sized vessels. The aim was to investigate the relations among adiponectin, leptin, resistin, and variants of ADIPOQ −11,377 C/G, LEP2548G/A, RETN −420 G/C in PVD and Buerger’s disease. Methods The study group consisted of 151 patients (127 PVD, 24 Buerger’s disease). Adiponectin, leptin, and resistin were analyzed by ELISA. ADIPOQ −11377 C/G, LEP2548G/A, and RETN −420 G/C were genotyped with designed primers, and probes in LightCycler 480. Results Adiponectin was found to be insignificantly higher in the PVD than that Buerger’s disease (p=0.17). Leptin was found to be significantly lower in the Buerger’s disease than in the PVD (p=0.018). The relationships were among age and leptin (r= −0.264; p=0.047), ankle brachial index (ABI) (r= −0.206; p=0.045), adiponectin (r=0.210; p=0.026) in PVD. In Buerger’s disease, resistin and leptin had a significant relationship (r= −0.508; p=0.019). Conclusions It is thought that the high serum leptin levels observed in the Buerger group carrying the ADIPOQ GG genotype and the PVD group carrying the RETN GG genotype may be related to the etiopathogenesis of both diseases. Our study is the first to examine the proteins and genetic variations of adipokines in the PVD and Buerger’s disease in Turkish population, and will provide direction for future studies to be conducted with the variants of leptin, adiponectin, resistin, and related proteins.