Hormone Resistin Independently Predicts Risk of Heart Failure

Blood levels of the hormone resistin, which is produced by fat cells, independently predict an individual's risk of heart failure.

This finding comes from a Health Aging and Body Composition (ABC) study, sponsored by the U.S. National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA).. The Health ABC study followed 3,000 elderly people in the Pittsburgh (PA, USA) and Memphis (TN, USA) areas over seven years starting in 1998.

In the Health ABC study, the risk of new onset heart failure increased by 38% for every 10 ng/ml increase in resistin levels in blood. Resistin was a stronger predictor of heart failure risk than other inflammatory markers linked to heart disease, such as C-reactive protein, the cardiologists found.

Scientists do not know the exact function of resistin but it appears to be associated with both inflammation and insulin resistance. Laboratory studies with rats indicated that resistin decreased the ability of rats' heart muscles to contract.

"This is one of the strongest predictors of new-onset heart failure we've been able to find, and it holds up even when you control for other biomarkers and risk factors including high blood pressure and diabetes,” said Javed Butler, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine and director of heart failure research at Emory University School of Medicine (Atlanta, GA, USA). "The value of a marker such as resistin may be in accurately identifying among this large population of at-risk individuals who is at the highest risk and then targeting interventions to those people.”

Cardiologists from Emory University School of Medicine presented their findings on November 12, 2008, at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions conference in New Orleans (LA, USA).

Related Links:
Emory University School of Medicine
Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health