Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Adiponectin and its receptors are expressed in human osteoblasts, suggesting that adiponectin may be a hormone linking bone and fat metabolism. In contrast to adiponectin anabolic effect on bone in vitro studies, clinical and animal studies suggest that adiponectin may have negative effects on bone by stimulating the receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) pathway and inhibiting the production of the decoy receptor for RANKL and osteoprotegerin. Several clinical studies have shown a negative correlation between adiponectin and bone mineral density (BMD) in females independently of confounding factors.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between adiponectin and bone mineral density in obese postmenopausal women.

Methods: Eleven obese postmenopausal women were recruited in our study (mean age=51.8±4.21 years, mean BMI=30.5±2.29 kg/m²). Levels of adiponectin (ng/ml) were measured using ELISA test (Mercodia, Sweden). Bone mineral density (BMD) was assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at the level of lumbar spine L2–L4 (BMD L2–L4) and left hip (Hologic). Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 19. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to evaluate the relationship between BMD and adiponectin.

Results: Adiponectin was inversely associated with BMD of left hip, (r=−0.910, P<0.05), T-score of left hip (r=−0.992, P<0.01). There was no statistically significant correlation between BMD of lumbar spine (L2–L4), T-score of lumbar spine and adiponectin.

Conclusion: Our result confirmed negative correlation between adiponectin and BMD of left hip but not with BMD of lumbar spine in obese women which suggest need for further investigation and elucidation of this interrelationship between adipokines and BMD.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.