Introduction: The interplay of low-grade chronic inflammation and metabolism has recently gained much interest regarding its potential involvement in chronic disease development. Based on findings from mainly mechanistic studies the novel biomarker chemerin shows great potential in this regard. However, studies investigating chemerin in humans are scarce.
Aim: The aim of our study was therefore to investigate chemerin in relation to adiposity and inflammation-related biomarkers. In addition, we assessed the reliability of chemerin measurements to enable future studies relying on single time-point measurements.
Materials and Methods: The study comprised 207 apparently healthy participants (124 women and 83 men) which provided blood samples on two occasions over a 4-month period. Plasma chemerin concentrations were measured using sandwich ELISA.
Results: At baseline, median chemerin concentration was 159 (IQR: 137 - 186) ng/mL. Age- and sex-adjusted Spearman correlation analyses revealed positive correlations of chemerin with body mass index (BMI) [Rho=0.35 (95%-CI: 0.22, 0.47)] and waist circumference [0.37 (0.24, 0.48)]. Chemerin was further correlated with C-reactive protein [0.26 (0.10, 0.41)], as well as the adipokines fatty acid-binding protein-4 [0.28 (0.12, 0.42)] and progranulin [0.23 (0.07, 0.38)], even after adjusting for body mass index. No correlation was observed with monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, omentin-1 and vaspin. In multivariable linear regression analysis, a combination of factors including body mass index, waist circumference, C-reactive protein, progranulin and fatty acid-binding protein-4 explained 28.0% of variance in chemerin concentrations. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) as a measure of reliability suggested a good level of agreement of chemerin measurements over time [ICC: 0.72 (95%-CI 0.65, 0.78)].
Conclusion: Overall, the results of our cross-sectional analyses highlighted the implication of chemerin as a biomarker linking immunity and metabolism. To investigate the relation of chemerin with chronic disease development, additional prospective studies are highly warranted.