Circulating levels of the adipokines vaspin and omentin in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and relation to disease activity.

Objectives: Vaspin and omentin are two recently discovered adipokines that have been involved in chronic inflammatory processes. The aims of our study were to evaluate their serum levels in patients affected by juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), in comparison to healthy controls, and to correlate circulating levels to parameters of disease activity.

Methods: Serum levels of omentin and vaspin were assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 40 patients with JIA classified according to the ILAR criteria and 26 healthy controls.

Results: Serum omentin levels were significantly higher in JIA patients versus healthy controls (p<0.0001) whereas serum vaspin levels did not significantly differ between the two groups. JIA children with active joints showed higher omentin serum levels than JIA children without active joints (p<0.001) and omentin serum levels significantly correlated with the presence of active joints (p<0.0001). Omentin serum levels were also significantly related with the number of active joints (p<0.002). Vaspin serum level did not show statistical significant differences between JIA children with active joints and those with no active joints. There was no correlation between plasma vaspin levels and the presence of active joints, or the number of active joints

Conclusions: Our study is the first report on the new adipokines vaspin and omentin in patients with JIA, and it shows that omentin is significantly higher in JIA patients in comparison with healthy controls. In addition, we also report that omentin plasma levels are significantly correlated with the presence and the number of active joints.