Relationship between serum resistin, body fat and inflammatory markers in females with clinical knee osteoarthritis

Adipokines have gained much interest in osteoarthritis (OA) pathogenesis studies over the past years in that they play crucial roles in bone and cartilage homeostasis. Obesity is known to be one of the well-recognized and modifiable causes of OA burden. Key mediators in this metabolic link between obesity and OA could be resistin, among other cytokines secreted by the adipose tissue. We aimed to evaluate the association of serum resistin with obesity, and inflammation in female patients with knee OA.

One hundred female participants, aged above 40 years, with symptomatic primary knee OA were matched for age with 100 apparently healthy females in a case–control study design. All study participants were subjected to clinical examination, laboratory investigations and radiological examination.

Patients with primary knee OA had elevated levels of serum resistin compared with healthy controls. We demonstrated that elevated serum resistin positively correlated with adiposity measures, inflammatory markers and WOMAC index. High sensitivity C reactive protein was found to be an independent predictor of serum resistin levels after adjustment for confounder factors.

These results indicate that resistin may play an important role in the progression of knee OA and may serve as a novel and reliable biomarker for reflecting disease severity, with the potential to contribute to the fundamental processes underlying the pathogenesis of knee OA.