Assessment of Serum Levels in Adipokines in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is described as a non-reversible airway obstruction and having systemic inflammatory progress. Secreted proteins by adipose tissue called as adipokines, Apelin, Ghrelin, Nesfatin, Visfatin and Leptin, have role in energy metabolism and inflammatory responses in chronic inflammatory diseases. We sought to search the role of adipokines in COPD and better understand the pathogenesis of this disease. This study was performed with 35 COPD and 25 healthy Turkish individuals. The statistical power for the groups was calculated by two-tailed test, an 80% confidence interval, and an alpha level of 5% significance. Peripheral blood samples were collected and separated for serum. Serum levels of interested parameters were measured by ELISA. Results were presented as mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). Statistical significances were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test. We could observe statistically significant high serum levels of apelin and ghrelin in COPD. There was not significant change for serum levels of nesfatin, visfatin and leptin. Apelin and ghrelin may be considered as potentially new targets for diagnosis and treatment of COPD. We suppose that to understand COPD pathophysiology and cure it more efficiently it is necessary to clarify adipokines role in this disease.