Serum Irisin May Predict Cardiovascular Events in Elderly Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease Stage 3-5

Irisin is a circulating myokine released from skeletal muscles after physical exercise. Irisin production decreases during the course of chronic kidney disease (CKD) as a potential consequence of sarcopenia and physical inactivity.

This observational study explored the relationship of serum irisin with cardiovascular outcome in 79 patients with stage 3-5 CKD.

Serum irisin was significantly higher in healthy subjects (n = 20) than that in CKD patients (7 ± 2 vs. 3.1 ± 0.9 μg/mL; P = .0001) and was higher in patients with CKD stage 3 (3.2 ± 1 μg/mL) than in patients at stage 4 and 5 taken together (n = 36, 2.8 ± 0.7 μg/mL, P = .05). Patients in the lowest serum irisin tertile had lower serum 1,25(OH)₂D levels (21 ± 11 pg/mL) than patients in the middle (30 ± 13 pg/mL; P = .005) and the highest tertile (27 ± 14 pg/mL; P = .047). Patients in the highest tertile had lower Kauppila score (10.6 ± 6.9) than patients in the middle (11.8 ± 5.5; P = .007) and the lowest tertile (6.9 ± 6.8; P = .043). Twenty patients suffered from cardiovascular events during a 3-year follow-up. A Cox regression model using age, body weight, presence of diabetes mellitus, gender, Kauppila calcification score, serum values of FGF23 (as logarithm), phosphate, sclerostin, albumin and cholesterol, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and serum irisin tertiles as covariates showed that patients in the highest tertile of serum irisin had a lower cardiovascular risk than patients in the middle tertile (B, 2.38; odds ratio, 10.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.65-58.13; P = .013) or in the lowest tertile (B, 1.61; odds ratio, 5; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-22.83; P = .038).

These findings suggest that serum irisin may be a marker of cardiovascular outcome in patients with CKD.