RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Resistin is a recently identified adipocyte-secreted hormone in rodents, and has been proposed to serve as a link between obesity and insulin resistance. The aim of this study was to develop a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for human resistin and evaluate serum resistin concentrations in normal subjects and patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Using ELISA developed by two polyclonal antibodies, resistin concentrations were measured in 90 patients with type 2 diabetes and compared to 74 healthy control subjects. RESULTS: This ELISA has high specificity and sensitivity over the concentration of range 0.5-100 ng/ml with good percentage recovery (97.1 +/- 4.7%) and reproducibility (within-day assay, CV = 4.8-8.6%; between-day assay, CV = 5.6-9.7%). The mean concentration of resistin in sera from type 2 diabetic patients was significantly higher than that in normal subjects (mean +/- S.E.: 20.8 +/- 0.7 vs. 14.9 +/- 0.5 ng/ml, p < 0.001). A moderate positive correlation was observed between serum resistin levels and body mass indices in both normal subjects (r = 0.412, p < 0.0003) and patients with type 2 diabetes (r = 0.395, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our ELISA will be useful to confirm the physiological and pathophysiological role of resistin in humans.
