Associations of Serum Adipokines with Subclinical Interstitial Lung Disease Among Community-Dwelling Adults: the MESA study.

BACKGROUND: Adipokines have inflammatory and fibrotic properties that may be critical in interstitial lung disease (ILD). We examined associations of serum adipokine levels with computed tomography (CT)-based measures of subclinical ILD and lung function among community-dwelling adults.

METHODS: A subset of the original Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis cohort (n=1,968) had adiponectin, leptin, and resistin measured during follow-up visits (2002-2005). We used regression models to examine associations of adiponectin, leptin, and resistin levels with 1) high attenuation areas (HAA) from CT scans (2004-2005, n=1,144), 2) interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) from CT scans (2010-2012, n=872), and 3) forced vital capacity (FVC) from spirometry (2004-2006, n=1,446). We used (-1HAA2 ), which we denoted with H, to model HAA as our outcome to meet model assumptions.

RESULTS: Higher adiponectin was associated with lower HAA on CT among adults with a body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m2 (P for BMI interaction=0.07). Leptin was more strongly associated with ILA among never smokers compared to ever smokers (P for smoking interaction=0.004). For every 1-SD increment of log-transformed leptin, the % predicted FVC was 3.8% lower (95% CI: -5.0, -2.5). Higher serum resistin levels were associated with greater HAA on CT in a fully-adjusted model. For every 1-standard deviation (SD) increment of log-transformed resistin there was an increase in H of 14.8 (95% CI: 3.4, 26.3).

CONCLUSIONS: Higher adiponectin levels were associated with lower HAA on CT among adults with a higher BMI. Higher leptin and resistin levels were associated with lower FVC and greater HAA, respectively.