The correlation between plasma levels of oxytocin and betatrophin in non-diabetic and diabetic metabolic syndrome patients: A cross sectional study from Jordan

Background Oxytocin (OXT) is a neurohypophyseal hormone that has been recently shown to possess a number of beneficial effects in diabetes and obesity. Betatrophin is a protein expressed in fat and liver that regulates lipid metabolism and promotes pancreatic β-cell proliferation. It is not investigated yet whether OXT and betatrophin levels correlate in metabolic syndrome (MS) or diabetes patients. Methods The aim was to assess correlations between plasma betatrophin and OXT levels in MS-diabetic or prediabetic (N = 89) as compared to MS-non-diabetic (N = 69) patients. Competitive binding ELISA was used to evaluate betatrophin and OXT plasma concentrations. Correlations of the above biomarkers and patient clinical characteristics were also detected. Results As compared to the control MS participants (0.32 ± 0.25 ng/mL); betatrophin plasma levels were increased (P < 0.001) in the MS-pre/T2DM patients (1.23 ± 0.68 ng/mL). On the contrary, OXT concentrations were decreased (P < 0.001) in the MS-pre/T2DM patients (1222.46 ± 514.55 pg/mL) as compared to the MS control subjects (2323.42 ± 848.68 pg/mL). OXT concentration correlated negatively (r = −0.492, P < 0.001), while HbA1c and FPG correlated positively with betatrophin plasma levels (P < 0.001), but were inversely correlated with OXT levels (P < 0.001) in the total sample. Conclusion Betatrophin levels are increased, while OXT levels are decreased in MS-pre/T2DM. We found an inverse correlation between the levels of the two biomarkers in addition to correlation between their levels and the degree of glycemic control.