Increased serum nesfatin-1 levels in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases

Adipokines are adipose tissue-derived secreted molecules that can exert anti-inflammatory or proinflammatory activities. Altered expression of adipokines has been described in various inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) such as Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Little is known about nesfatin-1, a recently identified adipokine, in IBD. The aim of this study was to investigate serum nesfatin-1 levels in patients with IBD.

This study included a total of 52 adult individuals (17 patients with CD, 18 patients with UC and 17 healthy volunteers) with similar age and body mass index. Serum nesfatin-1 levels were measured by ELISA in healthy individuals and patients with IBD in their active and remission periods. Blood inflammation markers including C reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation (ESR) and white cell count (WCC) were also measured in patients.

We found significantly elevated levels of serum nesfatin-1 in the active disease period in both patients with CD (p=0.00003) and patients with UC (p=0.00001), compared with healthy individuals. Serum nesfatin-1 levels moderately decreased in the remission period; however, they were still significantly higher than that of healthy individuals. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses indicated serum nesfatin-1 with an excellent diagnostic value for IBD. Finally, patients had significantly high CRP, ESR and WCC in the active IBD; however, we found the nesfatin-1 strongly correlated only with ESR in the active CD.

This is the first study investigating the circulating levels of nesfatin-1 in patients with IBD. Serum nesfatin-1 may serve as an additional inflammatory marker for diagnosis of IBD in affected individuals.