Adipocytokines and ischemic stroke: differential associations between stroke subtypes

Experimental studies have indicated that adipocytokines are associated with vascular diseases with regard to the pathology of atherosclerotic plaque. We hypothesized that the strength of the associations between adipocytokines and stroke would differ between ischemic stroke subtypes.

A total of 96 acute ischemic stroke patients (within 5 days from onset) and 48 non-stroke subjects were analyzed in this study. Stroke patients were comprised of 26 strokes due to large artery atherosclerosis (LAA) and 72 non-LAA strokes. Venous blood from all participants was drawn after an overnight fast, and serum levels of leptin, adiponectin and resistin were measured by multiple sandwich immunoassay techniques.

Compared with non-LAA strokes, patients with LAA strokes had lower levels of serum adiponectin (6.4 ± 3.1 vs. 8.5 ± 3.9 μg/mL; P=0.04), and a higher level of leptin-to-adiponectin ratio (L:A ratio; 1.6 ± 1.4 vs. 0.9 ± 0.9; P<0.01). Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that, although none of the adipocytokines was associated with non-LAA strokes, lower adiponectin (adjusted OR, 0.79 per 1-μg/mL increase; 95% CI, 0.64-0.98), higher leptin (aOR, 1.12 per 1-ng/mL increase; 95% CI, 1.004-1.25) and higher L:A ratio (aOR, 2.93 per 1-quartile increase; 95% CI, 1.39-6.15) showed significant associations with increased odds of having LAA stroke, compared to non-stroke subjects.

From our study, we documented that leptin and adiponectin had differential association patterns with ischemic stroke according to the stroke subtype. Careful consideration of the heterogeneity of stroke subtypes would be warranted in studying the utility of biomarkers including adipocytokines.