Plasma visfatin, associated with a genetic polymorphism −1535C>T, is correlated with C-reactive protein in Chinese Han patients with traumatic brain injury

► Visfatin genetic polymorphism is associated with plasma visfatin level. ► Visfatin genetic polymorphism is associated with plasma C-reactive protein level. ► Plasma visfatin level is highly correlated with plasma C-reactive protein level. ► Visfatin genetic polymorphism may be involved in the inflammatory process of TBI. Visfatin is a newly identified pro-inflammatory adipokine and a genetic polymorphism −1535 C>T located in the visfatin gene promoter has been suggested to be associated with the regulation of visfatin expression in some inflammatory illness. However, there were some conflicting results regarding whether this variant is functional or not. This study aimed to examine the relations of the −1535 C>T single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of visfatin gene to the plasma visfatin and C-reactive protein concentrations in traumatic brain injury (TBI). 318 Chinese Han patients with TBI were recruited in this study. Plasma visfatin and C-reactive protein levels were significantly different between the genotypes in the SNP-1535 C>T even after adjustment for age, sex and body mass index. The genotype C–C had the highest plasma visfatin and C-reactive protein concentrations. The plasma visfatin and C-reactive protein concentrations between the variant genotypes C–T and T–T did not differ significantly. Plasma visfatin level was significantly associated with plasma C-reactive protein level using multivariate linear regression. Thus, the SNP-1535 C>T of visfatin gene seemed to be potentially involved in the inflammatory component of TBI through a decreased production of visfatin.