PLoS ONE (Jan 2016)

Interleukin-6 Levels in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

  • Zheng Peng,
  • Yifan Sun,
  • Xiaolan Lv,
  • Hongyu Zhang,
  • Chunming Liu,
  • Shengming Dai

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148531
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 2
p. e0148531

Abstract

Read online

BACKGROUND:The change of serum interleukin-6(IL-6) levels in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), as well as the relations between IL-6 levels and body mass index (BMI), insulin resistance(IR) and androgen status of PCOS patients, are not fully understood. METHODS:A literature search was performed in October 2015 using PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library databases to identify studies. Random-effects model was used to estimate the standardized mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS:Twenty articles with 25 case-control studies included 1618 women (922 PCOS patients and 696 controls) were included in this study. IL-6 levels in controls were significantly lower than that of PCOS patients (SMD = 0.78, 95%CI = 0.41-1.16, P<0.001), with significant heterogeneity across studies (I2 = 91% and P<0.001). Meta-regression analysis model indicated IR status was the main source of heterogeneity (P = 0.005). Results from group analysis suggested that high IL-6 levels in PCOS were significantly associated with Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA2-IR) ratio and total testosterone ratio (T ratio), and was found in both lean and obese women with PCOS. Cumulative meta-analysis results indicated the total effect size (SMD) had tend to be stable since 2012(0.79 to 0.92). CONCLUSIONS:A high IL-6 level is not an intrinsic characteristic of PCOS, but may be a useful monitoring biomarker for the treatment of PCOS.