Endocrine Abstracts

It has been shown that adiponectin (AN) has antidiabetic, antiatherosclerotic and antiinflammatory activities. We analyzed serum AN levels in children with nonspecific infections. Forty-two prepubertal children (18 boys, 24 girls, age range: 14–163 months) admitted with fever ≥38 °C and nonspecific infection (upper respiratory tract infection, otitis, urine tract infections) symptoms were included. Their ideal body weights (IBW) for height were within 100–110%. Venous blood samples were taken from them both during the period of the fever at admission and three days later after the fever dropped (control) for analyzing serum AN levels and complete blood count (CBC), erythrocyte sedimentation rate and CRP, Hs-CRP, fibrinogen, ferritin, glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-C, HDL-C levels. Serum AN levels at the admission (8.8±1.7 μg/ml) were lower than at the control visit (12.04±2.38 μg/ml)(P<0.0001). Serum AN levels were not correlated with the degree of fever, BW, IBW, body-mass index, homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR), and the all other parameters analyzed in the study (P>0.05) in both analysis except glucose/insulin ratio at the admission (r=0.33, P<0.05). Serum glucose levels, glucose/insulin and HDL-C levels were higher (P<0.01, P<0.05 and P<0.001, respectively) and triglyceride and LDL-C levels were lower (P<0.001, P<0.01, respectively) at the admission than at the control. Lower serum AN levels were found in children with fever during the acute phase of nonspecific infections. It is suggested that AN may have anti-inflammatory and acute phase reactant roles in infections.