Serum Levels of the Adipokine FGF21 Depend on Renal Function

OBJECTIVE — To investigate renal elimination of the adipokine fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) by determining circulating FGF21 levels in patients on chronic hemodialysis (CD) as compared with control subjects with a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) 50 ml/min. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS — FGF21 was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in control (n 60) and CD (n 60) patients and correlated to clinical and biochemical measures of renal function, glucose and lipid metabolism, and inflammation in both groups. RESULTS — Median serum FGF21 levels were15-fold higher in CD patients (3,710.6 ng/l) than in subjects with a GFR 50 ml/min (201.9 ng/l) (P 0.001). Furthermore, serum creat-inine positively and GFR negatively predicted FGF21 concentrations in multiple regression analyses in control subjects (P 0.05). CONCLUSIONS — FGF21 serum levels increase in CD patients and are related to markers of renal function in control subjects. Diabetes Care 32:126–128, 2009 R ecently, fibroblast growth factor 21(FGF21) was introduced as a noveladipokine with potent antidiabetic properties (1–4). In contrast to extensive experiments in animals, only one study to date has determined regulation and func-tion of FGF21 in humans in vivo (5), and no data have been published about the relation of this adipokine to renal function