Vol.22 No.1

Original Article

Serum adipokine profiles in Kawasaki disease

Authors

Yasushi Kemmotsu1 , Tsutomu Saji1 , Natsuko Kusunoki2 , Nahoko Tanaka2 , Chiaki Nishimura3 , Akira Ishiguro4 , Shinichi Kawai2

  • Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo, 143-8541, Japan
  • Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine (Omori), School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Toho University, 6-11-1 Omori-Nishi, Ota-ku, Tokyo, 143-8541, Japan
  • Department of Medical Informatics, School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo, 143-8540, Japan
  • National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, 157-8535, Japan
Received:

24 January 2011

Accepted:

28 April 2011

Published online:

3 June 2011

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Abstract

Adipokines are cytokines derived from adipose tissue. Recently it has been established that adipokines are closely linked to the pathophysiology of not only metabolic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, obesity, and atherosclerosis, but also to inflammation and immune diseases. In this study we measured serum levels of adipokines in patients with acute Kawasaki disease to investigate the role of adipokines in the pathophysiology of Kawasaki disease. Serum resistin, high-molecular-weight (HMW) adiponectin, leptin, and visfatin levels were measured by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay in a total of 117 subjects: 56 patients with acute Kawasaki disease, 30 healthy children, and 31 patients with acute infectious diseases. Serum resistin levels in patients with Kawasaki disease were significantly higher than those of healthy children and patients with acute infectious diseases. In contrast, mean serum HMW adiponectin, leptin, and visfatin levels in patients with Kawasaki disease exhibited no statistically significant differences compared with those in healthy children and patients with infectious diseases. Serum resistin levels decreased significantly after administration of intravenous immune globulin. Serum resistin levels on admission were significantly higher in nonresponders compared with responders to intravenous immune globulin therapy. A multivariate model revealed that C-reactive protein was a factor that was significantly related to elevated serum resistin level in patients with Kawasaki disease. In patients with Kawasaki disease, serum resistin levels were elevated, but decreased to nearly normal after intravenous administration of immune globulin. In contrast, serum HMW adiponectin, leptin, and visfatin levels showed no statistically significant changes. These findings suggest that resistin plays an important role, while other adipokines do not play a major role, in the pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease.

Key words

Adipokines - Resistin - C-reactive protein - Kawasaki disease