Visfatin: Relationship of Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome

Objective: Visfatin is a adipocytokine suggested to play a role in glucose homeostasis. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of simple anthropometric measures of obesity and metabolic syndrome with visfatin. Materials and Methods: Eighty-eight obese females were evaluated in our study. We used anthropometric measures to determine obesity and NCEP-ATPIII criteria, which best predict the metabolic syndrome. Visfatin concentrations were compared between the groups after categorizing the subjects according to obesity degree and presence or absence of metabolic syndrome. Results: Visfatin levels were not statistically significant between overweight/obese and morbidly obese groups, but it was observed that visfatin levels rose as BMI increased. However, visfatin levels did not differ between the subjects with or without metabolic syndrome. Conclusion: Our results suggested that increased concentrations of visfatin may be associated with obesity but not with metabolic syndrome. Further studies may lead to new insights into physiological role of visfatin in glucose homeostasis and metabolic diseases.