Objective: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a major public health problem with high prevalence associated with coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and many cardiometabolic diseases. Appropriate and specific screening markers have been reported to be important for investigating the pathophysiology of MetS and reducing its incidence and early diagnosis. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the relationship of adiponectin between healthy individuals and the case group and to examine the role of adiponectin levels in MetS and related disorders, which are thought to play a role in the etiology of MetS and related endocrinopathies.

Materials and Methods: The case-control study was carried out in the internal medicine outpatient clinic between June 2011 and January 2012. The case group of 72 participants included 18 participants with metabolic syndrome, 18 participants with T2DM, 18 participants with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and 18 participants with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). Sixteen participants without any metabolic disease are included in the control group. Age, gender, height, weight , waist circumference and blood pressure values of the participants were obtained through a sociodemographic questionnaire form. Adiponectin and biochemical parameters were measured from fasting plasma samples.

Results: Serum adiponectin levels; T2DM (P<0.001), IGT (P<0.01) and MetS (P<0.05) groups were significantly lower than the control group. In comparison of the case groups, the adiponectin levels of the participants in the Type 2 DM group were significantly lower than the IFG group (P<0.001) and the MetS group (P<0.01). The glucose, LDL, VLDL, triglyceride, HbA1c and blood pressures of the participants with IGT, T2DM and MetS with low adiponectin levels were higher than the control group.

Conclusion: Adiponectin secreted from adipose tissue has been found to be associated with impaired glucose tolerance, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. It has been thought that the decrease in adiponectin levels is associated with increased lipid, glucose, blood pressure in individuals and causes an increase in waist circumference and obesity.