Endocrine Abstracts

Purpose: Cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) influences the appetite, obesity and pancreatic functions. The aim of this study is to determine the CART level of patients with PCOS and examine the relation with the insulin resistance in patients with PCOS.

Methods: 41 patients with PCOS and and 39 healthy women were included in the study whose age and BMI matched. For PCOS diagnosis, 2003 Rotterdam criteria were used. The fasting serum glucose, insulin, CART and free testosterone levels of the all participants were measured. HOMA–IR was used in order to calculate the insulin resistance, and QUICKI-IS index was used to measure the insulin sensitivity.

Results: The two groups did not differ much in term of serum glucose concentrations (P>0.05). In patients with PCOS the serum insulin levels (14.11±6.3 vs 12.4±5.1 μU/ml, P=0.03) and HOMA–IR (3.01±1.3 vs 2.61±1.07, P=0.015) were significantly higher; while QUICKI-IS (0.34±0.02 vs 0.33±0.02, P=0.031) and serum CART (90.39±8.45 vs 94.34±11.21 pg/ml, P=0.04) levels were significantly lower. In the correlation analysis performed, there was a significantly positive correlation between CART and QUICKI-IS (r=0.173, P=0.049) and significantly negative correlations between HOMA-IR (r=−0.274, P=0.002). In the regression analysis, while the contribution of CART to HOMA-IR was detected.

Conclusions: As a result of our study, CART may be thought to have an impact on the obesity seen in patients with PCOS and their physiopathology.