MedWire News: Researchers in Greece have discovered that smoking cessation, aided by the pharmacologic agent buproprion, results in a significant increase in adiponectin levels within 2 months.

“Smoking has been associated with low serum levels of adiponectin, an adipocytokine with insulin-sensitizing, anti-inflammatory, and anti-atherogenic properties,” say Stamatis Efstathiou (Hygeias Melathron, Athens) and colleagues.

“However, no data are available so far in regard to the short-term impact of smoking cessation on serum adiponectin concentration.”

To investigate further, the team recruited 106 apparently healthy Greek smokers without additional cardiovascular risk factors to the study. The participants were prescribed the well-established pharmaceutical aid buproprion 150 mg/twice daily for a period of 9 weeks.

Those who managed to quit smoking, confirmed by testing serum cotinine levels, formed the active group (n=45) and those who did not formed the control group (n=61).

Presenting their results at a poster session at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Barcelona, Spain, the researchers report that quitters’ adiponectin levels were significantly increased by 1.9 µg/ml compared with baseline by the end of the study.

In contrast, non-quitters’ adiponectin levels remained unchanged at 9 weeks.

Efstathiou and team estimate that female gender, age, body mass index, waist circumference, smoking status, and cotinine levels combined explained about two thirds of the variation in adiponectin levels.

They conclude: “This finding may provide further insight into the mechanisms related to the detrimental effects of smoking and the benefits of quitting.”

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009

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