serum level of adiponectin and its association with insulin sensitivity in overweight diabetic and non-diabetic iranian men

background: adiponectin is a protein produced exclusively by adipose tissue; the reduced level of which has been shown to be involved in a variety of obesity-related disorders, such as insulin resistance and diabetes, in different eth­nic groups. this cross-sectional study was conducted to determine adiponectin level and its association with insu­lin sensitivity in 20 adult overweight type-2 diabetic and 20 healthy over-weight non-diabetic iranian men for the first time. methods: body fat mass (bio-electric impedance), serum level of adiponectin (elisa), fasting blood sugar and fasting in­sulin were measured. insulin sensitivity was calculated using quicki. results: as expected, the mean adiponectin concentration was lower in diabetics (7.7 ±3µg/ml) than non-diabetics (8.1 ± 2µg/ml); however, the difference did not achieve statistical significance ( p = 0.5). adiponectin negatively cor­related with fat mass. this correlation was stronger in diabetics with a higher fat mass (r= -0.3 in diabetics vs. r= -0.01 in non-diabetics; p: n.s.). adiponectin positively related with insulin sensitivity in both groups, although this rela­tion was only statistically sig­nificant in non-diabetics (r= +0.5; p = 0.04). the relation between insulin sensitivity and mean of adiponectin level was mar­ginally significant even after adjustment for group (diabetic and non-dia­betic), age and fat mass. conclusion: our findings are consistent with the studies on different ethnic groups which have indicated lower adi­ponectin lev­els in diabetics. also our results confirm the relationship between a low adiponectin level and insulin sen­sitivity reported in earlier studies.