The Relationship Between Dietary Lipids and Serum Visfatin and Adiponectin Levels in Postmenopausal Women

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death in humans, particularly in postmenopausal women. Inflammation has been shown to play a basic role in the development of CVD. In light of the involvement of adipocytokines and dietary lipids in the induction of inflammation in CVD, this study was conducted to investigate the potential relationship between dietary lipids and two well-known adipocytokines, visfatin and adiponectin. A total of 374 postmenopausal women were randomly selected from 13 geographical clusters in Bushehr port. Serum visfatin and adiponectin were determined with an enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay technique and current dietary intake was recorded with a food frequency questionnaire and a 3-day recall. Each food and beverage was analyzed for macro- and micronutrient content. Bivariate correlation analysis showed a correlation between serum visfatin level and dietary SFA, n-6 PUFA and cholesterol intake. In multiple regression analyses, serum visfatin levels showed a significant positive correlation with dietary SFA (β=0.06, p=0.01), PUFA (β=0.02, p=0.02) and cholesterol (β=0.005, p=0.002) after controlling for age, diabetes, total energy intake and BMI. There was no significant relationship between dietary MUFA intake and serum visfatin level. No significant correlations were found between age- and BMI-adjusted adiponectin and dietary SFA, MUFA or n-6 PUFA intake (p>0.05). We found a positive relationship between dietary SFA, PUFA and cholesterol with serum visfatin level in postmenopausal women, and conclude that the postmenopause-induced inflammatory responses may be modulated at least in part by dietary modification.