Adipsin Serum Concentrations and Adipose Tissue Expression in People with Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

(1) Adipsin is an adipokine that may link increased fat mass and adipose tissue dysfunction to obesity-related cardiometabolic diseases. Here, we investigated whether adipsin serum concentrations and adipose tissue (AT) mRNA expression are related to parameters of AT function, obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). (2) Methods: A cohort of 637 individuals with a wide range of age and body weight (Age: 18-85 years; BMI: 19-70 kg/m ) with (n = 237) or without (n = 400) T2D was analyzed for serum adipsin concentrations by ELISA and visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous (SAT) mRNA expression by RT-PCR. (3) Results: Adipsin serum concentrations were significantly higher in patients with T2D compared to normoglycemic individuals. We found significant positive univariate relationships of adipsin serum concentrations with age (r = 0.282, < 0.001), body weight (r = 0.264, < 0.001), fasting plasma glucose (r = 0.136, = 0.006) and leptin serum concentrations (r = 0.362, < 0.001). Neither VAT nor SAT mRNA expression correlated with adipsin serum concentrations after adjusting for age, sex and BMI. Independent of T2D status, we found significantly higher expression in SAT compared to VAT (4) Conclusions: Our data suggest that adipsin serum concentrations are strongly related to obesity and age. However, neither circulating adipsin nor AT expression reflects parameters of impaired glucose or lipid metabolism in patients with obesity with or without T2D.