Serum chemerin and visfatin levels and their ratio as possible diagnostic parameters of rheumatoid arthritis

Dunia M Mohammed Ali; Suhaer Zeki Al-Fadhel; Nibras H Abdulsada Al-Ghuraibawi; Hussein Kadhem Al-Hakeim

doi:10.5114/reum.2020.95359

Serum chemerin and visfatin levels and their ratio as possible diagnostic parameters of rheumatoid arthritis

Reumatologia. 2020;58(2):67-75. doi: 10.5114/reum.2020.95359. Epub 2020 Apr 30.

Authors

Dunia M Mohammed Ali¹, Suhaer Zeki Al-Fadhel², Nibras H Abdulsada Al-Ghuraibawi³, Hussein Kadhem Al-Hakeim⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Kufa, Iraq.
² Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, College of Pharmacy, University of Kufa, Iraq.
³ Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, University of Kufa, Iraq.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Kufa, Iraq.

Abstract

Objectives: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the synovium and articular cartilage that initiates joint damage. Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with a change in many inflammatory biomarkers. The present study aims to examine the diagnostic ability of inflammatory adipocytokines (chemerin and visfatin) and their ratio for RA disease.

Material and methods: The study recruited 60 RA patients and 30 healthy controls. Serum visfatin and chemerin were measured using the ELISA technique. Some related parameters including body mass index (BMI), lipid profile components, C-reactive protein (CRP), and uric acid levels were also determined and correlated with the level of these adipokines.

Results: Serum chemerin, visfatin, CRP, and uric acid (UA) levels were significantly higher (p< 0.05) in RA patients than those of the control group. The multivariate general linear model (GLM) analysis showed that 70.7% of the change in the level of measured parameters can be explained by the presence of RA disease (partial η² = 0.707, p< 0.001). To explore which parameter was affected by the diagnosis, the results of tests between subjects showed that all biomarkers were affected significantly by the diagnosis and the greater effects were on CRP (partial η² = 0.480, p< 0.001) followed by chemerin (partial η² = 0.295, p< 0.001), while visfatinshowed partial η² = 0.079 only. Chemerin showed the highest sensitivity (88.1%) and specificity (75.9%) for diagnosis of RA at cut-off concentration = 187.88 ng/ml as compared with other parameters.

Conclusions: Chemerin and visfatin levels are affected by RA disease when adjusted for other cofounders. The present results suggest that serum chemerin can be used as an inflammatory marker of RA patients as it has good sensitivity and specificity.

Keywords: C-reactive protein; chemerin; rheumatoidarthritis; visfatin.