The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical significance of changes in the plasma adiponectin concentration in patients with bronchial asthma and to test the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs2241766 and rs1501299 in the ADIPOQ gene and bronchial asthma in the Chinese Li population. We selected 120 cases and 120 controls, and plasma adiponectin, interleukin (IL)-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In addition, we genotyped two tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) and evaluated their association with bronchial asthma using the χ2 test and genetic model analysis. Compared to controls, patients with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma showed significantly lower adiponectin and significantly higher IL-6 and TNF-α levels (p<0.01). A positive association was found between the rs1501299 SNP and acute exacerbation (OR=1.62; 95% CI=1.08-2.43; p=0.019). The inverse correlation between the plasma adiponectin concentration and asthma exacerbation indicates that adiponectin may play a protective role in the pathogenesis of asthma. Meanwhile, our findings suggest that ADIPOQ polymorphisms influence the risk of developing bronchial asthma in Chinese Li population.
Keywords: Adiponectin; Asthma; Case-control studies.