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Ethnic differences in the relationship between adiponectin and insulin sensitivity in South Asian and Caucasian women
Marlene Martin1, Latha P Palaniappan, Andrea C Kwan
1Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
Objective:
To assess whether lower adiponectin concentrations in South Asian Indians may be responsible for their greater degree of insulin resistance.
Research Design And Methods:
Insulin-mediated glucose uptake and plasma total and high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin concentrations were quantified in 52 women of South Asian (SA) and Caucasian (CAU) ancestry and compared.
Results:
Mean +/- SD total (2,965 +/- 1,278 vs. 4,235 +/- 160 ng/ml) and HMW (1,001 +/- 352 vs. 1,591 +/- 854 ng/ml) adiponectin were lower in SAs than CAUs (P < 0.005). Insulin-resistant CAUs (CAU-IR) had lower total (2,665 +/- 1,040 vs. 5,133 +/- 1,086 ng/ml) and HMW (987 +/- 479 vs. 1,935 +/- 838 ng/ml) adiponectin than insulin-sensitive CAUs (CAU-IS) (P < 0.01), but there were no significant differences between insulin-resistant (SA-IR) and insulin-sensitive (SA-IS) SAs. HMW adiponectin did not differ between SA-IR and CAU-IR, but SA-IS had significantly lower adiponectin concentrations than CAU-IS.
Conclusions:
Insulin resistance status is not associated with significantly lower levels of adiponectin in these SA women, in contrast to the CAU women.
