Recent epidemiological studies have revealed that hyperadiponectinemia is associated with all-cause mortality, suggesting that adiponectin plays some role as a marker of systemic wasting and can thus predict death. Matsumoto et al. conducted a case-control study to test this hypothesis in 5,243 subjects. Over an average of 10.8 years of follow-up, 103 cases with noncardiovascular death and 565 controls without history/event/death of any cardiovascular disease were identified. The authors found that the second lowest quintile and the highest quintile of adiponectin concentrations were positively associated with noncardiovascular deaths. However, these associations were largely dependent on other variables such as body mass index and C-reactive protein. The study identified that the peak of noncardiovascular death risk at the second lowest quintile of adiponectin was largely due to the increased risk for cancer death at this quintile, whereas the second peak (highest quintile) was mainly due to the increased risk for noncardiovascular noncancer death at this quintile. Moreover, a linear and independent association between adiponectin and risks for noncardiovascular noncancer death was observed. Study findings suggest that adiponectin could be an independent indicator of noncardiovascular death, which may be related to systemic wasting. However, the authors underlined that further studies are needed to confirm the usefulness of adiponectin as a predictor of wasting and death.
Documentation centre