Vascular Health and Risk Management (Dec 2020)

Adipokines and Arterial Stiffness in the Elderly

  • Fantin F,
  • Disegna E,
  • Manzato G,
  • Comellato G,
  • Zoico E,
  • Rossi AP,
  • Mazzali G,
  • Rajkumar C,
  • Zamboni M

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 16
pp. 535 – 543

Abstract

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Francesco Fantin,1 Eleonora Disegna,1 Gisella Manzato,1 Gabriele Comellato,1 Elena Zoico,1 Andrea P Rossi,1 Gloria Mazzali,1 Chakravarthi Rajkumar,2 Mauro Zamboni3 1Department of Medicine, Section of Geriatrics Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy; 2Department of Medicine, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK; 3Department of Surgery, Dentistry, Paediatrics and Gynaecology, Section of Geriatrics, University of Verona, Verona, ItalyCorrespondence: Francesco FantinDepartment of Medicine, Section of Geriatric Medicine, University of Verona, Piazzale Stefani 1, Verona 37126 ItalyTel +39 045-8122537Fax +39 045-8122043Email [email protected]: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between adipokines and arterial stiffness in a group of 85 elderly subjects and the role of leptin and adiponectin on subclinical vascular damage, defined by a PWV> 10 m/s.Methods: In each subject, we evaluated anthropometry, body composition by DXA (fat mass, fat mass%, lean mass), metabolic variables, leptin, adiponectin, systolic, diastolic, mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure (SBP, DBP, MAP, PP), carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and carotid-radial pulse wave velocity (crPWV).Results: In the study population, significant associations were observed between cfPWV and crPWV, age, SBP, MAP, waist circumference, fat body mass and leptin. The study population was subdivided in 2 subgroups according to adipokine patterns: group 1 included patients with high adiponectin and low leptin, and group 2 patients had high leptin and low adiponectin. SBP, PP, cfPWV were significantly higher in subjects with high leptin and low adiponectin (group 2). Even after adjustment for gender, fat mass%, MAP, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides, cfPWV was higher in group 2 than group 1. In a logistic binary regression on the entire population, considering subclinical vascular damage as a dependent variable and age, gender, MAP, fat mass%, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol and category of subjects with high leptin and low adiponectin as independent variables, MAP and category of subjects with high leptin and low adiponectin were significant predictors (OR, respectively, 1.09 and 3.61).Conclusion: In conclusion, in the elderly, the presence at the same time of high leptin levels and low adiponectin levels seems to have synergic effects on arterial stiffness.Keywords: leptin, adiponectin, elderly, arterial stiffness

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