Serum resistin is related to plasma HDL cholesterol and inversely correlated with LDL cholesterol in diabetic and obese humans.

Objectives: Plasma cholesterol, triglycerides and serum resisistin may all be influenced by diabetes and obesity, but their associations remain unclear. Therefore, we put forward a hypothesis that serum lipids might be parallel to resistin, as they all reflect the metabolic status of obese humans.
Design and Setting: We measured the concentrations of resistin, total cholesterol (TC), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TG) in 134 obese non-diabetic (73 women and 61 men) and 65 obese diabetic (33 women, 32 men) humans, and examined their interrelations. Obesity was defined according to the WHO criterion (BMI, ≥ 30 kg/m²) The presence of diabetes was the only differentiating factor between two groups of frankly obese humans.
Results: Non-diabetic vs. diabetic, median and interquartile range, respectively: resistin (ng/mL) 26.08, 16.09 vs. 22.37, 14.54, p=0.736; TC (mmol/L) 5.02, 1.39 vs. 5.16, 1.56, p=0.374; HDL-C (mmol/L): 1.10, 0.41 vs. 1.02, 0.47 p<0.05; LDL-C (mmol/L): 3.00, 1.05 vs. 3.00, 1.30 p=0.978; TG (mmol/L) 1.70, 1.43 vs.1.95, 1.81 p<0.05. To investigate the interrelations between resistin and lipids, a simple regression analysis was used, and the results were for resistin & TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, and TG, respectively: in the whole cohort r=-0.1364, p=0.0670, r=0.1514, p=0.0437, r=-0.2573, p=0.0006, r=0.0434, p=0.5597; in non-diabetics: r=-0.2067, p=0.0213, r=0.1023, p=0.2621, r=-0.2399, p=0.0083 and r=0.0288, p=0.7497; in diabetics r=0.0280, p=0.8360, r=0.2267, p=0.0929, r=-0.2933, p=0.0298, r=0.1349, p=0.3127.
Conclusions: In diabetic and non-diabetic subjects the atherogenic LDL cholesterol shows an inverse correlation with resistin, whereas the protective anti-atherosclerotic HDL cholesterol is positively correlated with resistin.