Adipokine levels and their association with chronic endometritis in reproductive-aged women

Objective. To evaluate serum concentrations of leptin and adiponectin and their association with chronic endometritis (CE) in reproductive-aged women. Patients and methods. The study included 198 reproductive-aged women who were recruited during general health checks. All patients underwent anthropometric (body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage) and instrumental (pelvic ultrasound, endometrial pipelle biopsy with CD138 immunohistochemistry) examinations, and serum leptin and adiponectin levels were determined. Non-parametric methods and logistic regression were used for statistical analysis. Results. The results of the examination of 121 women were analyzed, of whom 20 were subsequently excluded due to missing data on BMI values, serum leptin concentrations, and CD138 expression levels in the endometrial stroma. Patients were divided into two groups: 60 healthy women (control group) and 41 women with CE, between whom statistically significant differences in BMI (p = 0.012), leptin (p = 0.002) and adiponectin (p = 0.002) levels were determined. Following patients’ division into subgroups according to BMI, women with CE were found to have statistically significantly higher adiponectin levels (p = 0.01) in the subgroup with normal weight and lower leptin levels (p = 0.001) in the subgroup with BMI ≥25 kg/m2 compared to that in the control group. Relatively low leptin levels were a risk factor for CE (OR: 0.903 [0.843; 0.969], p = 0.004) in overweight and obese women. Conclusion. A significant association between serum leptin levels and the presence of CE was determined in overweight and obese women, but not in normal weight women. Key words: adiponectin, inflammation, leptin, overweight, body mass index, obesity, chronic endometritis