High adiponectin levels fail to protect against the risk of hypertension and, in women, against coronary disease: involvement in autoimmunity?

Table 1 Characteristics of sample (n = 1224) by gender and serum adiponectin (in μg/mL) tertiles

n		Men (n = 561)							Women (n = 663)
		1 4.941		2 8.50		3 15.36		AnovaP-trend	1 6.121		2 10.87		3 19.67		AnovaP-trend
		Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD		Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Age (yr)	1224	52.2	10.1	53.8	11	58.14	11.9	< 0.001	52.8	10.3	53.5	11.9	57.14	12	< 0.001
BMI (kg/m2)	1213	28.2	4	29.3	4.3	27.3	4.5	0.23	31.84	6	30.3	4.8	30.1	5.7	0.003
Waist circumfer. (cm)	1217	97.3	11.1	96.8	10.6	95	11.9	0.11	94.3	12.7	92.1	11.4	91.2	12.7	0.024
Systolic BP (mmHg)	1217	120.6	18.8	121.3	19.6	121.8	20.3	0.83	130.5	23.9	126.4	21.7	127.3	23.7	0.15
Diastolic BP (mmHg)	1217	77.8	10.8	77.7	10.3	77.6	10.6	0.98	80.8	11.5	79.7	10.4	80	11.8	0.54
Complement C3 (g/L)	610	1.36	0.27	1.29	0.27	1.23	0.27	0.007	1.44	0.29	1.37	0.33	1.24	0.24	< 0.001
CRP3 (mg/L)	1143	2.26	1.25-5.06	2.11	1.02-3.9	1.424	0.76-3.2	< 0.001	2.72	1.15-6.33	2.61	1.21-6.18	2.29	1.08-4.0	0.025
Total cholest. (mg/dL)	1213	191.3	40	194.8	38	190	40.3	0.46	201	41.7	205.4	53	204.9	44.3	0.54
Fast. glucose, (mg/dL)	1124	99	39	99.6	37.8	94	25.8	0.27	101.9	43.9	99	38.2	93.7	32	0.093
ApoB (mg/dL)	1116	107.6	26.7	105.3	28.9	100.4	46.9	0.15	106	26.3	104.3	32.5	106.9	37.5	0.72
Creatinine (mg/dL)	1144	1.02	0.19	1.02	0.22	0.99	0.22	0.24	0.78	0.21	0.79	0.18	0.84	0.42	0.066
Fast. triglycer.3 (mg/dL)	1123	160.84	108-227	138.1	100-187	126.2	89-174	< 0.001	146.2	108-206	133.5	99.9-182	1174	83.5-164	< 0.001
HDL-cholest. (mg/dL)	1207	35.6	8.3	39.5	9.8	434	11.3	< 0.001	43.9	11.5	45.6	10.6	49.44	11.7	< 0.001
Apo A-I (mg/dL)	1103	129.7	25	134.7	25.1	138.9	25.8	0.004	144.3	26.4	145.7	29.9	152.6	28.1	0.008
Lp (a)3 (mg/dL)	764	8.16	3.8-18.2	7.93	3.2-19.4	9.36	3.4-20.6	0.52	12.1	5.3-24.5	13.3	5.7-23.6	12.4	4-29.4	0.85
Thyroid SH3 (mIU/L)	532	1.06	0.7-1.6	1.05	0.6-1.7	1.01	0.67-1.5	0.89	1.53	0.97-2.45	1.47	0.84-2.3	1.37	1.0-2.46	0.70
Current/former smok (%)	1218	58.4	20	47.9	21.1	45.9	29	0.035	16	3.7	18.6	3.6	14.7	3.7	0.87
Prevalent diabetes2 (%)	1219	11.8		12.6		13.1		0.93	17.7		12.1		12.9		0.18
Incident CHD, n (%)	1061	13 (8.2)		11 (6.7)		4 (2.5)		0.086	21 (11.1)		8; 4		16 (8.4)		0.029

¹Geometric mean adiponectin value of the tertile;

²Excluded from the study;

³Median and interquartile range;

⁴Values differing from both of the other tertiles. CRP: C-reactive protein; BMI: Body mass index; BP: Blood pressure; CHD: Coronary heart disease; HDL: High-density lipoprotein; LP: Lipoprotein.

Table 2 Linear regression analysis for serum adiponectin

	Total		Men		Women			Total		Men		Women
	βcoeff.	P value	βcoeff	P value	βcoeff	P value		βcoeff	P value	βcoeff	P value	βcoeff	P value
Model 1	n = 513		n = 252		n = 261		Model 2	n = 454		n = 223		n = 231
Sex (female)	1.20	< 0.001					Sex (female)	1.285	< 0.001
Age (11 yr)	1.05	0.055	1.10	0.005	0.997	0.93	Age (11 yr)	1.04	0.13	1.067	0.079	1.007	0.88
Fasting insulin1	0.79	0.009	0.80	0.016	0.79	0.033	C-reactive protein1	0.90	0.057	0.83	0.011	0.98	0.80
SHBG1 (nmol/L)	2.14	< 0.001	1.76	0.001	2.02	< 0.001	SHBG1	1.97	< 0.001	1.77	0.002	2.08	< 0.001
Creatinine (0.25 mg/dL)	1.04	0.67	0.992	0.82	1.085	0.052	Fasting insulin1	0.84	0.026	0.83	0.06	0.86	0.20
							Creatinine (0.25 mg/dL)	1.04	0.14	1.01	0.78	1.081	0.086
							Waist circumference (12 cm)	1.023	0.41	1.021	0.57	1.025	0.52
							Lipoprotein(a)1	1.003	0.94	1.07	0.38	0.96	0.60

All models were significant (P < 0.001), explained 16%/17% of adiponectin variance in genders combined, 14%/16% in men and 12% in women.

¹Log-transformed values. SHBG: Sex hormone-binding globulin.

Table 3 Cox regression analyses of serum adiponectin tertiles for incident diabetes, coronary heart disease and hypertension, adjusted for sex, age and relevant confounders

	Total HR	95%CI	Men HR	95%CI	Women HR	95%CI
Diabetes	40/7612		21/3332		19/4282
Adiponectin mid-tertile	0.64	0.32-1.31	0.83	0.30-2.28	0.35	0.11-1.09
Adiponectin top-tertile	0.26	0.10-0.69	0.28	0.07-1.17	0.23	0.06-0.88
Fasting glucose (25 mg/dL)	1.60	1.22-2.04	1.49	1.08-2.09	2.25	1.35-3.72
Waist circumference (12 cm)	1.88	1.43-2.46	2.04	1.44-2.88	1.78	1.13-2.78
Creatinine (0.25 mg/dL)	1.08	0.74-1.58	0.77	0.37-1.60	1.18	0.87-1.60
C-reactive protein1, 3-fold	1.21	0.97-1.52	1.10	0.80-1.51	1.36	0.96-1.73
Coronary disease	66/8052		25/3582		41/4472
Adiponectin mid-tertile	0.54	0.30-0.97	0.8	0.34-1.92	0.39	0.17-0.90
Adiponectin top-tertile	0.49	0.26-0.91	0.31	0.09-1.05	0.66	0.32-1.38
Non-HDL cholester. (35 mg/dL)	1.07	0.87-1.28	1.37	0.97-1.93	0.93	0.70-1.19
Waist circumference (12 cm)	1.46	1.18-1.82	1.28	0.89-1.84	1.60	1.22-2.08
Creatinine (0.25 mg/dL)	1.20	0.91-1.58	1.36	0.85-2.17	1.05	0.69-1.60
C-reactive protein1, (3-fold)	1.12	0.95-1.32	1.06	0.81-1.39	1.18	0.95-1.47
Hypertension	120/5412		53/2742		67/2672
Adiponectin mid-tertile	1.08	0.71-1.91	1.23	0.62-2.43	1.03	0.56-1.89
Adiponectin top-tertile	0.77	0.55-1.59	1.08	0.51-2.30	0.64	0.33-1.24
Waist circumference (12 cm)	1.41	1.14-1.74	1.28	0.93-1.76	1.53	1.14-2.06
Creatinine (0.25 mg/dL)	1.06	0.82-1.37	1.15	0.80-1.66	1.08	0.74-1.59
C-reactive. protein1, 3-fold	0.96	0.85-1.09	1.08	0.90-1.30	0.90	0.76-1.06

¹Log-transformed. All models were additionally sex- and age-adjusted. Referent low adiponectin tertile (< 6.9 men and < 8.8 μg/mL women).

²Number of incident cases/number at risk. Mean creatinine values at baseline were 0.994 in men and 0.776 mg/dL in women, and ages 53.5 and 53 years, respectively.