Effect of simvastatin treatment on plasma visfatin levels in obese women

Abstract

Aims: Obesity is one of the major concerns in the world currently, its prejudicial effect is exerted by proteins secreted by adipose tissue, among them visfatin was demonstrated to be related with BMI and cardiovascular diseases. The HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors are known to minimize the cardiovascular risk in hyperlipidemic patients and recently the discovery of various pleiotropic effects has made the statins evidencing among others anti-inflammatory effect. Our objective in this study was to determinate if simvastatin treatment may modulate visfatin levels in obese women without any other metabolic disorder.

Methods: We recruited 25 obese women without any other metabolic disorder and treated with simvastatin for 6 weeks 20 mg/day.

Results: The levels of plasma visfatin were similar before and after treatment (22 ± 20 versus 27 ± 14 ng/mL, p > 0.05) and correlated with BMI before treatment (p = 0.001). We also found correlations among visfatin and insulin levels (p = 0.015) and HOMA-IR (p = 0.025) only after treatment.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that visfatin is not modulated by simvastatin treatment in this group but the treatment may interfere on the relation among visfatin, BMI, insulin and HOMA-IR.

Chinese abstract

目的：肥胖是目前世界上主要问题之一,其有害影响通过脂肪组织分泌的蛋白质而显示，其中内脂素（visfatin）已被证明与BMI和心血管疾病相关。羟甲基戊二酸单酰CoA（HMG- CoA）还原酶的抑制剂可以减少高脂血症患者的心血管风险,而且最近发现的各种多效性证明了他汀类药物的抗炎效果。本研究目的是探讨辛伐他汀是否可以调节不伴有其它代谢紊乱的肥胖女性的内脂素水平。

方法：25名不伴有其它代谢紊乱的肥胖女性，给予辛伐他汀20毫克/天，共6周。

结果：血浆内脂素水平在治疗前和治疗后相似（22±20与27±14ng/ml，P>0.05）并治疗前与体重指数相关(p = 0.001)。另发现只有在治疗后内脂素水平与胰岛素水平（P = 0.015）和稳态模型评估的胰岛素抵抗指数(HOMA-IR)（P = 0.025）具有相关性。

结论：对不伴有其它代谢紊乱的肥胖女性，辛伐他汀治疗不调节内脂素水平，但可能影响内脂素，BMI，胰岛素和HOMA-IR之间的关系。

• BMI
• insulin
• obesity
• visfatin
• simvastatin

Notice of Correction:

The version of this article published online ahead of print on the 12 May 2014 contained an error in the abstract. The following sentence “The levels of plasma visfatin were similar before and after treatment (22 ± 20 versus 27 ± 14 ng/mL, p < 0.05) and correlated with BMI before treatment (p = 0.001)” should have read “The levels of plasma visfatin were similar before and after treatment (22 ± 20 versus 27 ± 14 ng/mL, p > 0.05) and correlated with BMI before treatment (p = 0.001).” The error has been corrected for this version.