Obestatin: a new element for mineral metabolism and inflammation in patients on hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND Obestatin plays a key role in the process of energy balance maintenance with an anorectic effect. The main aim of the study was to evaluate obestatin in uremic patients to determine whether it is correlated with nutritional and inflammatory status. METHODS We studied plasma obestatin in uremic patients (n = 50) undergoing hemodialysis therapy and in healthy subjects. Plasma obestatin was measured using an ELISA kit. RESULTS Obestatin levels in uremic patients were lower than in healthy subjects (p < 0.0001). Patients with a body mass index (BMI) >23 had lower obestatin levels than those with a BMI <23 (p = 0.001). After multivariate analysis, direct correlations were maintained between obestatin and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (β = 0.68, p < 0.0001) and total alkaline phosphatases (β = 0.30, p = 0.03), while inverse correlations were found with iron (β = -0.32, p = 0.002) and calcium-phosphorous product (β = -0.40, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Based on the present observational data, obestatin might be implicated in the inflammatory state and the disturbances of calcium/phosphate metabolism of hemodialysis patients. However, further studies are warranted to determine whether this hormone plays a key role in contributing to malnutrition and to the chronic inflammatory process.