Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2013 , Vol 16, Issue 2
ASSOCIATION OF PERIPHERAL VISFATIN LEVELS AND VISFATIN G-948T GENE POLYMORPHISM WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE IN A TURKISH POPULATION
Ufuk VURGUN1, Özlem ŞAHİN2, Kemal Uğur TÜFEKCİ1, Pembe KESKİNOĞLU3, Görsev YENER4, Kemal Kürşad GENÇ1, Şermin GENÇ1
1Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Sinirbilimleri Anabilim Dalı İZMİR
2Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Nöroloji Anabilim Dalı İZMİR
3Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Biyoistatistik ve Tıbbi Bilişim Anabilim Dalı İZMİR
4Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, Beyin Dinamiği Araştırma Merkezi İZMİR
5İstanbul Kültür Üniversitesi, Beyin Dinamiği, Kognisyon ve Kompleks Sistemler Araştırma Merkezi İSTANBUL
Introduction: Visfatin is a pleiotropic cytokine implicated in several physiological and pathophysiological processes such as innate immunity, cellular metabolism, longevity, and inflammation. Altered visfatin levels and visfatin gene polymorphisms have been reported in various human diseases, including type 2 diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, coronary artery disease and stroke.

Materials and Method: In this study, we investigated whether serum visfatin levels were changed in volunteers with Alzheimer's disease (AD) (n = 40) or healthy controls (n=40) and whether visfatin gene G-948T polymorphism was associated with the disease.

Results: Visfatin levels were not significantly different in AD patients compared with healthy aged control subjects. In this relatively small population, we found a significant, but weak association between GT heterozygous genotype at position -948 of visfatin gene and AD. However, there was no association between G-948T polymorphism and visfatin levels, and any demographic, anthropometric or biochemical parameters.

Conclusion: Further studies in larger and different populations are needed to fully elaborate the involvement of visfatin gene in AD. Keywords : Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase; Alzheimer Disease; Polymorphism; Inflammation; Aging