ESPE Abstracts

Background: Spexin is a novel hormone that may potentially impact food intake, weight regulation and body adiposity. Circulating spexin has been associated with obesity and insulin resistance indices in women.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine serum spexin concentrations in adolescent females with metabolic syndrome, with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), with anorexia nervosa as well as in healthy controls, and explore possible relationships between circulating levels of spexin and BMI.

Methods: Study participants included adolescent females, aged 12–21 years, diagnosed with metabolic syndrome (International Diabetes Federation), PCOS (Rotterdam), anorexia nervosa (DSM-5), as well as healthy controls, who presented to the Centre for Adolescent Medicine and UNESCO Chair on Adolescent Health Care, between January 2015 and May 2017. Exclusion criteria included severe comorbidity, chronic medication, contraceptive use and pregnancy. Serum spexin concentrations were measured by ELISA using the Spexin (Human) EIA Kit of Phoenix Pharmaceuticals (USA) with analytical sensitivity of 0.08 ng/ml. Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman’s rho correlation were used for statistical analyses.

Results: A total of 82 adolescent girls aged (mean±S.D.) 16.2±2.2 years; 14 females with metabolic syndrome (mean age±S.D., 14.9±1.9 years; mean BMI±S.D., 29.1±6.7 kg/m²), 17 obese females with PCOS (mean age±S.D., 15.4±2.0years; mean BMI±S.D., 26.7±3.3 kg/m²), 23 lean females with PCOS (mean age±S.D., 16.9±2.1 years; mean BMI±S.D., 21.1±1.4 kg/m²), 11 anorexic females (mean age±S.D., 15.0±1.5 years; mean BMI±S.D., 15.9±1.0 kg/m²) and 17 controls (mean age±S.D., 17.7±2.2 years; mean BMI±S.D., 19.9±1.5 kg/m²), participated in the study. No significant differences (P=0.260) were observed in serum spexin concentrations among adolescents with metabolic syndrome (median±IQR, 0.27±0.06 ng/ml), obese with PCOS (median±IQR, 0.29±0.09 ng/ml), lean with PCOS (median±IQR, 0.24±0.16 ng/ml), with anorexia nervosa (median±IQR, 0.31±0.12 ng/ml) and controls (median±IQR, 0.20±0.22 ng/ml). Serum spexin levels were not correlated with BMI (r_s=−0.141, P=0.216).

Conclusion: Results suggest that circulating levels of spexin cannot discriminate adolescent females with metabolic syndrome, PCOS or anorexia nervosa and across a wide range of BMI. These findings need to be confirmed in larger adolescent populations.