Background: Oxytocin (OXT) is a neurohypophyseal hormone that has been recently shown to possess a number of beneficial effects in diabetes and obesity. Betatrophin is a protein expressed in fat and liver that regulates lipid metabolism and promotes pancreatic β-cell proliferation. It is not investigated yet whether OXT and betatrophin levels correlate in metabolic syndrome (MS) or diabetes patients.
Methods: The aim was to assess correlations between plasma betatrophin and OXT levels in MS-diabetic or prediabetic (N=89) as compared to MS-non-diabetic (N=69) patients. Competitive binding ELISA was used to evaluate betatrophin and OXT plasma concentrations. Correlations of the above biomarkers and patient clinical characteristics were also detected.
Results: As compared to the control MS participants (0.32±0.25ng/mL); betatrophin plasma levels were increased (P<0.001) in the MS-pre/T2DM patients (1.23±0.68ng/mL). On the contrary, OXT concentrations were decreased (P<0.001) in the MS-pre/T2DM patients (1222.46±514.55pg/mL) as compared to the MS control subjects (2323.42±848.68pg/mL). OXT concentration correlated negatively (r=-0.492, P<0.001), while HbA1c and FPG correlated positively with betatrophin plasma levels (P<0.001), but were inversely correlated with OXT levels (P<0.001) in the total sample.
Conclusion: Betatrophin levels are increased, while OXT levels are decreased in MS-pre/T2DM. We found an inverse correlation between the levels of the two biomarkers in addition to correlation between their levels and the degree of glycemic control.
Keywords: Betatrophin; Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays; Metabolic syndrome; Oxytocin; Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
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