The purpose of this study was to examine whether the association between high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin and incident diabetes is stronger than that of total adiponectin in African-American and white adults. The study sample consisted of 1,090 participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. At the end of the 9-year follow-up, the cohort included 550 diabetes cases and 540 noncases. Analyses revealed that high baseline concentrations of both total and HMW adiponectin were associated with a substantially lower risk for incident diabetes in initially healthy adults. These associations were independent of age, sex, ethnicity, hypertension, parental history of diabetes, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, inflammation score and baseline fasting insulin. Further adjustment for baseline fasting glucose largely attenuated the association, which could be explained by the fact that glucose is probably on the causal pathway of the association between adiponectin and incident diabetes as interpreted by the authors. Thus, these results suggest that higher total and HMW adiponectin concentrations were similarly associated with a lower incidence of diabetes in African-American and white adults.
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