ESPE Abstracts

Objective: To find the roles of Fetuin-A and FGF21 in metabolic disorders through investigating the correlations between Fetuin-A, FGF21 with metabolic indicators in girls with Turner syndrome (TS).

Methods: A cross-sectional study of TS girls ranging from 5 to18 years and age-, body mass index (BMI)- matched healthy girls were recruited from the outpatients in Fuzhou Children’s Hospital of Fujian Medical University. The anthropometric indicators including height, weight, waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were measured and Tanner stages were recorded. The levels of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), fasting blood glucose (FBG), fasting serum insulin (FIns), Fetuin-A and FGF21 were tested. Weight to hip ratio (WHR), weight to height ratio (WHtR), BMI, BMI-standardized deviation score (BMI-SDS), non-HDL and homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were calculated. TS girls were divided into subgroups according to karyotype and Tanner stage, respectively.

Results: 71 TS girls (12.25 ± 3.97 years) and 71 healthy girls (11.95 ± 3.15 years) were assessed. The levels of Fetuin-A and FGF21 were significantly higher in TS group than the control [1.45 (1.23, 1.83) vs 1.25 (1.10, 1.56) mg/ml, 207.4 (101.23, 344.13) vs 153.9 (88.04, 250.39) ng/ml, respectively]. In TS group, Fetuin-A was positively correlated with FBG and HOMA-IR, while negatively correlated with age and Tanner stages; FGF21 was positively correlated with WHtR, HOMA-IR and TG, but negatively correlated with HDL-c. Independent correlations between Fetuin-A with Tanner stages and HOMA-IR, FGF21 with HDL (P<0.05) were found in TS respectively.

Conclusions: �FFGF21 resistance might exist even in the childhood of TS. FGF21 resistance and the elevation of serum Fetuin-A might involve in the glucolipid metabolic disorders in this population through regulating insulin sensitivity.

Keywords: Turner syndrome, metabolic disorder, insulin resistance, Fetuin-A, FGF21.