Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Lipocalin-2 is abundantly expressed in mature adipocytes and causes insulin resistance. In the physiopathology of PCOS, insulin resistance has great importance. The purpose of this study was to determine serum lipocalin-2 levels in patients with PCOS and to investigate its relationship with body fat percentage, hs-CRP and insulin resistance.

Methods and designs: This study was planned as a case controlled study. We enrolled 44 women with PCOS and 47 healthy women in the study. Fasting serum glucose, insulin, lipocalin-2, free testosterone, and hs-CRP levels of all the women included in the study were measured and body fat percentages were calculated. Insulin resistance of the individuals was calculated by the HOMA–IR formula and insülin sensitivity by the QUICKI formula.

Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of age and BMI (P>0.05). Serum lipocalin-2, hs-CRP, free testosterone, insulin levels and HOMA–IR were determined as significantly high in the patients with PCOS (P<0.05). Furthermore, body fat percentage was determined statistically significantly high in PCOS patients (P=0.02). In the correlation analysis, no relation was determined between lipocalin-2 and insulin resistance and insulin sensitivity. A significant positive correlation was determined between free testosterone, hs-CRP and body fat percentage with lipocalin-2.

Conclusion: As a result, in our study, lipocalin-2 was found to be increased in women with PCOS and any relation between serum lipocalin-2 level and glucose metabolism was not determined. Besides, we think that, serum lipocalin-2 level in women with PCOS might be an indication of increased cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: Lipocalin-2, PCOS, insulin resistance.

Running head: Lipocalin-2 and PCOS.