title: Elevated peripheral visfatin levels in narcoleptic patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Narcolepsy is a severe sleep disorder that is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexies and a tendency towards obesity. Recent discoveries indicate that the major pathophysiology is a loss of hypocretin (orexin) producing neurons due to immunologically mediated degeneration. Visfatin is a recently described proinflammatory adipokine. It is identical to the immune modulating pre-B-cell colony enhancing factor (PBEF). Our study examines the hypothesis that visfatin levels are altered in narcoleptic patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  For the analysis, a total of n = 54 patients (n = 18 males and n = 36 females) with the diagnosis of narcolepsy according to DSM-IV and the International Classification of Sleep Disorders were examined (BMI mean 30.3+/-5.5, age mean 52.5+/-16.1 years). As a control group 39 unrelated (n = 12 males and n = 27 females) healthy volunteers with no sleep disorder according to DSM-IV were included (BMI mean 28.5+/-4.6, age mean 51.1+/-13.6 years). Peripheral visfatin levels were measured using a commercial enzyme immunoassay kit with a measurement range from 0.1-1000 ng/ml. Narcolepsy symptoms, severity and frequency of symptoms as well as the total duration of various aspects of the symptomatology were assessed by unstructured and structured clinical interviews in including the Stanford Center for Narcolepsy Sleep Inventory.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Circulating visfatin was found to be significantly increased in HLA DR2 positive narcoleptic patients compared to controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, our results add to the evidence of disturbed immunological regulation in patients with narcolepsy.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors: Norbert
authors: N
authors: Dahmen
authors: Nina
authors: N
authors: Manderscheid
authors: Jana
authors: J
authors: Helfrich
authors: Petra B
authors: PB
authors: Musholt
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Forst
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Pfützner
authors: Alice
authors: A
authors: Engel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D015802:HLA-DR2 Antigen / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009290:Narcolepsy / Q000097:blood / Q000201:enzymology*; D054409:Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase / Q000097:blood*; D017286:Polysomnography; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D015802:HLA-DR2 Antigen; D054409:Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase; C085455:nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase, human