Endocrine Abstracts

It is well known that primary aldosteronism (PA) is frequently associated with metabolic syndrome. Among possible pathogenic mechanisms, adiponectine gene variants may play a role in the development of metabolic complications especially type two diabetes.

Aim of this study was to assess the presence of two single nucleotide polymorphisms of the adiponectin gene (G276T and T45G) in patients with PA and determine their relation to metabolic parameters.

Subjects and methods: We studied 51 patients with PA and 37 controls with essential hypertension. Twenty three patients had aldosterone producing adenoma (APA) and 28 idiopathic hyperaldosteronism (IHA). Genotypes of the adiponectin gene were determined at positions 45 (exon two) and 276 (intron two) by PCR. BMI, plasma glucose and lipids were measured by routine methods.

Results: The prevalence of G allele of T45G polymorphism in PA was slightly but not significantly higher in comparison to EH (27% vs. 13.7%). Carriers of G allele had significantly higher plasma cholesterol (P < 0.05), LDL cholesterol (P < 0.05) and slightly but not significantly lower HDL cholesterol. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of G allele between APA and IHA. The prevalence of TT/GT genotypes of the G276T polymorphism was significantly higher in PA as comared with hypertensive controls (54.9% vs. 26%, P < 0.05). However patients with T allele did not differ in metabolic parameters from those with G allele only.

Conclusion: Patients with PA have significantly higher prevalence of T allele of the G276T polymorphism than controls with EH. However the presence of T allele was not related to metabolic parameters. On the other side the presence of G allele of the T45G adiponectin gene polymorphism may confer a risk of worse lipid profile in these patients.

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 work was supported, however funding details unavailable.