Plasma adiponectin levels in women with anorexia nervosa

Adiponectin is a plasma protein exclusively secreted by adipose tissue, which plays a role in modulating lipid and glucose metabolism. The plasma adiponectin concentration shows an inverse correlation with the body mass index in normal and obese individuals, but it has not been investigated in subjects with an extremely low body weight and undernutrition such as anorexia nervosa patients. We investigated plasma adiponectin levels in 21 females with anorexia nervosa. Nineteen healthy females served as the lean control group. The subjects with anorexia nervosa had a significantly lower weight and showed a tendency towards higher adiponectin levels than the control group. No correlation between adiponectin and BMI was found in patients with anorexia nervosa, while a linear negative correlation was seen in lean controls. The patient who showed the lowest adiponectin level reached a life-threatening state and required intravenous feeding in hospital. In association with improved nutrition and weight gain, the adiponectin level increased gradually until the body mass index was about 16 and then decreased subsequently as would be expected in lean normal subjects. These observations suggest that adipose tissue secretes less adiponectin and the adiponectin levels do not show an inverse correlation simply with body mass index in some subjects with severe undernutrition.