Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: Chemerin, a recently discovered adipokine produced by the adipose tissue and liver, along with other atherosclerosis markers, was associated lately with metabolic syndrome and acts as chemoattractant for immune cells may also regulate immune cell properties. Autoimmune Hashimoto’s thyroiditis even with sTSH levels corrected to be within the normal range values may be accompanied by dyslipidemia presenting increased total-C, TG, LDL-C, and Lp(a), all of which are potential risk factors for developing atherosclerosis. Previously we found significant correlations between serum chemerin levels and lipid and lipoprotein subfractions in nondiabetic obese patients. However, chemerin level and its association with serum lipid levels in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis has not been fully investigated.

Methods: In the present study we measured the serum chemerin and other atherosclerosis marker levels by ELISA in 52 patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and in 34 age, gender and BMI matched controls.

Results: We did not find significant difference in serum chemerin levels between the patient and control groups (88.7±16.8 vs 91.5±15.9 ng/ml). However, significantly higher sTSH, LDL-C, Lp(a), apoA1 and apoB levels were found in patients compared to the controls. We found significantly positive correlations between serum chemerin levels and TG, non-HDL, leptin and CRP, age and BMI. In this study chemerin level negatively correlated with the HDL-C level. There was no correlation between chemerin and sTSH, fT3 and fT4, and anti-TPO levels. These findings were consistent even when comparing the subgroups of patients having their sTSH levels above and under 4 mU/l, nor when considering these groups and the controls. Leptin was found to be an independent predictor of chemerin in both patient and control groups.

Conclusions: Although serum chemerin is not elevated in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, regardless their actual sTSH levels, patients with higher chemerin levels present impaired dyslipidemia markers associated with increased risk for atherogenesis. Therefore, chemerin may be a useful marker in atherosclerotic risk assessment in patients having Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.