Tissue and serum adiponectin levels in patients with gastric cancer: are there any correlations between adiponectin levels and histopathological variables?

BACKGROUND/AIMS Adiponectin is secreted from adipose tissue and is characterized by hyperinsulinemia, which is related with obesity. Adiponectin levels are significantly lower in gastric cancer patients than in healthy controls. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between adiponectin levels in serum, tumor tissue and normal tissue with some other insulin resistance parameters. METHODOLOGY A total of 35 patients with gastric cancer who had undergone curative gastrectomy by standard lymph node dissection were enrolled in this study. Their serum adiponectin levels, tumor tissue and normal breast tissue adiponectin levels were compared. RESULTS The mean adiponectin levels of the tumor tissue, normal gastric tissue and serum were 48.6±2.9 (range, 39.7-50.6), 48.3±4.2 (range, 34.4-50.69) and 49.4±0.83 (range, 48.2-50.2), respectively. There was no relationship between the adiponectin levels in serum, normal tissue and tumor tissue (p=0.08). There was an inverse relationship between normal tissue adiponectin levels and insulin levels (p=0.002, r=-0.5), but this association was not detected with adiponectin levels in tumor and serum (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS Relationships between adiponectin levels in serum, normal tissue and tumor tissue for gastric cancer patients were not found. The small sample size in this study may have influenced the results. However, we believe that our results constitute a first in evaluating the tissue adiponectin levels in gastric cancer tissue.