EXPRESS: Effect of inositol supplementation on plasma adipokine levels: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Evidence suggests that inositol supplementation has anti-obesity, anti-hyperglycemic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, considering that adipokines are therapeutic targets in the management of metabolic diseases due to their involvement in various biological processes, the goal of this meta-analysis was to determine the effect of inositol supplementation on adipokine levels in gestational diabetes, postmenopausal women, polycystic ovary syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. The search process was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases from inception to February 2026. A restricted maximum likelihood model with Hartung-Knapp adjustment was conducted to calculate the pooled effect size. The leave-one-out method was employed to determine the impact of each study on the overall effect size. The meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials revealed that inositol supplementation has no significant effect on adiponectin (WMD: 2.70 µg/mL, 95% CI: –1.02, 6.41, p = 0.12, I2 = 91%; Figure 3), leptin (WMD: 1.57 ng/mL, 95% CI: –33.28, 36.42, p = 0.66, I2 = 64%; Figure 4) or resistin (WMD: –7.43 ng/mL, 95% CI: –89.30, 74.45, p = 0.45, I2 = 94). Additionally, the sensitivity analysis was robust for adiponectin, while the effect size was sensitive to one study for each leptin and resistin. In conclusion, our results suggest that inositol supplementation has no beneficial effect on circulating adipokine levels.