Circulating adiponectin is associated with obesity and serum lipids in West Africans.

CONTEXT: Adiponectin, a hormone secreted by adipose tissue, has both metabolic and antiinflammatory properties. Although multiple studies have described the relationship between adiponectin and obesity in several human populations, no large studies have evaluated this relationship in Africans.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the relationship between adiponectin and measures of obesity, serum lipids, and insulin resistance in a large African cohort.

DESIGN: Participants are from the Africa America Diabetes Mellitus (AADM) Study, a case-control study of genetic and other risk factors associated with development of type 2 diabetes in Africans.

SETTING: Patients were recruited from five academic medical centers in Nigeria and Ghana (Accra and Kumasi in Ghana and Enugu, Ibadan, and Lagos in Nigeria) over 10 yr.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Circulating adiponectin levels were measured in 690 nondiabetic controls using an ELISA. The correlation between log-transformed circulating adiponectin levels and age, gender, measures of obesity (body mass index, waist circumference, and percent fat mass), and serum lipid levels was assessed. Linear regression was used to explore the association between adiponectin levels and measures of obesity, lipids, and insulin resistance as measured by homeostasis model assessment.

RESULTS: Significant negative associations were observed between log-adiponectin levels and measures of obesity after adjusting for age and gender. Similarly, log-adiponectin levels were significantly negatively associated with serum triglycerides and insulin resistance but positively associated with high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and total cholesterol after adjusting for age, gender, and body mass index.

CONCLUSIONS: Circulating adiponectin is significantly associated with measures of obesity, serum lipids, and insulin resistance in this study of West African populations.