Higher vaspin levels in subjects with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis

Aims: Visceral adipose tissue-derived serpin (vaspin) was identified as a new adipocytokine. Many studies reported vaspin concentrations in obese subjects and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. However, large variation in levels of vaspin seen in different studies may be attributable to differences of sample size. The aim of this study is to establish an accurate confidence interval of vaspin levels in obese subjects and T2DM patients using a large-scale meta-analysis. Methods: Publications of the association between vaspin and obesity and T2DM in the databases of Medline, PubMed and EMBase were collected. The keywords included "vaspin" and "visceral adipose tissue-derived serpin". Review manager 5.0 was used to process the data. Results: For the analysis of obesity, 6 studies with 1826 participants were included in our meta-analysis; the level of vaspin was 0.52 ng/ml [95% confidence interval (CI)](0.10-0.93, P = 0.02) higher in obese subjects than that in non-obese healthy controls. Eleven studies with 1570 patients were included for the analysis of T2DM; the level of vaspin was 0.36 ng/ml [95% CI] (0.23-0.49, P < 0.00001) higher compared with that in healthy controls. Conclusions: Significantly higher levels of serum vaspin were observed in obese subjects and T2DM patients. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.