Association of elevated circulating fibroblast growth factor 21 levels with prevalent and incident metabolic syndrome: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) plays an important role in glucose and lipid metabolism. We have investigated the relationship of plasma FGF21 levels with both prevalent and incident metabolic syndrome (MetS) in participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). 5783 participants from four major ethnic groups (non-Hispanic white, African American, Hispanic American, and Chinese American) were included in the cross-sectional analysis. Longitudinal analysis involved 3479 participants without MetS at baseline, of whom 1100 participants developed incident MetS over 9.2 years. Elevated FGF21 levels were found in participants with prevalent MetS (median [interquartile range] = 189.4 [114.4–302.1] vs. 123.7 [65.9–210.3] pg/mL, p