Potential role of vaspin and apelin in chronic hepatitis C virus patients with and without diabetes

An association between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection have been shown by many studies. The present study investigated the role of vaspin and apelin and their association with biochemical, clinical and histopathological parameters in patients with CHC with and without diabetes in 40 patients (20 with CHC without diabetes and 20 CHC with diabetes) and 20 as controls. Our results showed that apelin increased significantly in CHC patients with diabetes (4.01 ± 1.40 ng/ml) and in CHC patients without diabetes (3.39 ± 1.37 ng/ml)compared to control group (1.84 ± 0.8 ng/ml). Vaspin showed significant decrease in CHC patients without diabetes (0.83 ± 0.20 ng/ml) than control group (1.14 ± 0.56 ng/ml). Vaspin significantly increased in CHC patients with diabetes(1.40 ± 0.31 ng/ml) in comparison with control group. Progressive fibrosis is associated with rise of both apelin and vaspin levels. We conclude that vaspin and apelin could be used as specific predictors for liver fibrosis in CHC patients with and without diabetes. Since serum apelin and vaspin significantly correlated with serum level of liver enzymes in CHC patients, this may emphasize the role of apelin and vaspin in the pathogenesis of this liver disease.