Increased plasma visfatin concentration is a marker of an atherogenic metabolic profile

Filippatos, T.D.; Tsimihodimos, V.; Derdemezis, C.S.; Gazi, I.F.; Saougos, V.; Mikhailidis, D.P.; Tselepis, A.D.; Elisaf, M.S.

doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2011.07.002

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Increased plasma visfatin concentration is a marker of an atherogenic metabolic profile

T.D. Filippatos
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
V. Tsimihodimos
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
C.S. Derdemezis
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
I.F. Gazi
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
V. Saougos
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
D.P. Mikhailidis
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry (Vascular Disease Prevention Clinics), Royal Free Hospital campus, University College London Medical School, University College London (UCL), London, UK
A.D. Tselepis
- Laboratory of Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
M.S. Elisaf
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 2651 0 07509; fax: +30 2651 0 07016.

Received 1 December 2010; received in revised form 6 July 2011; accepted 7 July 2011. published online 03 October 2011.
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Abstract

Background and aims

Visfatin is associated with atherosclerosis-related diseases. We assessed in non-diabetic individuals the association of plasma visfatin levels with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and the atherosclerosis-related metabolic variables.

Methods and results

When study population (n = 179, age 49 ± 11 years) was divided according to visfatin tertiles, the 10-year CVD Framingham risk scores were significantly increased in the top visfatin tertile. We observed a positive association between visfatin tertiles with waist circumference and blood pressure, as well as with total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, but not with apolipoprotein C-III, fibrinogen or pre-beta1 high density lipoprotein (HDL). The percentage of large HDL subclasses was significantly lower and the percentage of small HDL subclasses over the HDL-C concentration was significantly higher in the top visfatin tertile compared with the other tertiles. The atherogenic small dense low density lipoprotein subclasses (sdLDL-C) were significantly increased in the top visfatin tertile compared with the lower tertiles. High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) concentration was significantly increased in the top visfatin tertile compared with the lower tertiles. Although age and sex distribution did not differ between visfatin tertiles, the simultaneous adjustment for these parameters attenuated the significance of the differences observed in sdLDL-C and hsCRP levels. Similarly, after adjustment for hsCRP or waist circumference, only triglycerides and blood pressure levels, as well as the distribution of HDL subclasses, remained significantly different between visfatin tertiles.