Determination of Serum Adiponectin and Vitamin D Levels in Patients with Depression

Abstract

Objective: In this study we aimed to determine serum levels of adiponectin and vitamin D in patients with depression. We further tried to find association between adiponectin, vitamin D and inflammatory marker, high sensitivity C reactive protein, and oxidative stress marker malondialdehyde in these patients. Methods: This is a cross-sectional/ analytical study carried out in the out patient’s department of the psychiatry department of Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar. A total of 120 participants were randomly selected and divided into two groups. Group A was labelled as Cases and consisted of 60 newly diagnosed patients with depression. Group B was labelled as Control and consisted of age and gender matched healthy participants with no major physical or mental illness. Any subject with prior anti-depressant treatment or any other major physical illness was excluded from the cases group. A fasting 5 mL blood sample was collected from all participants after well informed written consent and was analyzed for serum adiponectin, vitamin D, malondialdehyde (MDA), total anti-oxidant capacity (TAC) and high sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP). Statistical analysis was done with SPSS version 21. Comparisons between the two groups were done with independent student’s t test. Pearson’s correlation co-efficient r was used to find association of adiponectin with other biomarkers. Significance of the results was considered with a p value of less than 0.05. Results: Adiponectin µg/mL (4.3±7.0 vs 9.4±5.5, P<0.0001) and vitamin D levels ng/mL (17.06±6.4 vs 30.81± 3.3, P<0.0001) were found to be significantly lower in cases than control. The inflammatory marker hs-CRP (mg/L) and oxidative stress marker MDA (nmol/L) were significantly higher in patients with depression (4.4±2.7 vs 1.2 ±1.1) and (5.83±0.62 vs 2.52±0.84). Adiponectin correlated significantly positively with vitamin D (r 0.45, P<0.0001), and TAC (r 0.52, P<0.0001), and negatively with hs-CRP (r-0.33, P<0.0001). Conclusion: Adiponectin and vitamin D were both low in patients with depression and associated inversely with inflammatory markers and oxidative stress markers i.e hs-CRP and MDA respectively. Future studies may implicate a potential combined therapeutic role of adiponectin and vitamin D supplements in these patients.

Keywords: Adiponectin, Vitamin D, Depression, hs-CRP, Malondialdehyde.