A new predictor for prediabetes: Chemerin

Objective: It was aimed to investigate irisin and chemerin levels in prediabetic individuals and their value in predicting prediabetes. 
Method: Thirty-eight prediabetic patients aged 18-65 years (22 impaired fasting glucose (IFG), 10 impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), 6 patients with coexisting IFG and IGT) and thirty-five healthy volunteers were included in which was designed as a cross-sectional study. The basic demographic characteristics of all participants in the case and control groups were compared with the serum chemerin, irisin, creatinine, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), high-density lipoprotein (HDL-cholesterol), low-density lipoprotein (LDL-cholesterol), triglyceride (TG), free thyroxine (sT4), and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. 
Result: Serum chemerin level was found to be higher in the prediabetic group (p=0.03), while no significant difference was found for the irisin level between the two groups. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, we showed that chemerin was an independent risk factor in predicting prediabetes. There was a positive correlation (p=0.01, r=0.279) between all participants' body mass index (BMI) and chemerin level and a negative correlation between irisin level and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level, and Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) (p=0.04 r=-0.295, p=0.01 r=-0.407, respectively). 
Conclusion: Chemerin is a new generation chemokine that predicts prediabetes. Studies aimed at irisin and chemerin may provide important role to prevent the prediabetes to Type 2 diabetes progression.