title: Visfatin and ghrelin: can they be forthcoming biomarkers or new drug targets for asthma?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Asthma represents chronic inflammation of the airways and is associated with bronchial hyperresponsiveness and reversible airway obstruction. A novel adipokine visfatin and an appetite-modulating hormone ghrelin play a role in several diseases related with inflammation. Although visfatin is a pro-inflammatory adipokine, ghrelin mainly exerts anti-inflammatory effects. However, very little is known about the role of visfatin and ghrelin in asthma. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the role of visfatin and ghrelin in asthma by evaluating their serum levels in asthmatic patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was performed on 27 asthma and 23 healthy controls. Blood samples were collected in tubes without EDTA. Serum levels of visfatin and ghrelin were measured by human ELISA assay kits. Statistical analyses were performed by SPSS 16.0 package program and differences were considered statistically significant at p < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum levels of visfatin and ghrelin were significantly higher in asthma group (respectively; p = 0.001, p = 0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While visfatin has a pro-inflammatory role, ghrelin exerts an anti-inflammatory effect in asthma. Therefore, visfatin can be a forthcoming biomarker and ghrelin may be a new anti-inflammatory drug target to diagnose and treat asthmatic patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chest Diseases, Dumlupınar University Faculty of Medicine Kütahya 43100, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ümran
authors.initials: Ü
authors.lastname: Toru
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Dumlupınar University Faculty of Medicine Kütahya 43100, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ceylan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ayada
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Dumlupınar University Faculty of Medicine Kütahya 43100, Turkey.
authors.forename: Osman
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Genç
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, Dumlupınar University Faculty of Medicine Kütahya 43100, Turkey.
authors.forename: Server
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Şahin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Dumlupınar University Faculty of Medicine Kütahya 43100, Turkey.
authors.forename: Özlem
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Arık
authors.affiliation: Department of Chest Diseases, Karabük University Faculty of Medicine Karabük 78200, Turkey.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Acat
authors.affiliation: Department of Adult Immunology and Allergy, Süreyyapaşa Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Training and Research Hospital İstanbul 34844, Turkey.
authors.forename: İsmet
authors.initials: İ
authors.lastname: Bulut
authors.affiliation: Department of Chest Diseases, Yedikule Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Training and Research Hospital İstanbul 34020, Turkey.
authors.forename: Erdoğan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Çetinkaya
keywords: Asthma; adipokine; appetite-modulating hormone; biomarker; drug target; ghrelin; inflammation; visfatin