Visfatin Levels in Pulmonary Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Muhammad Islampanah¹Reza Hossein Zadeh¹Abolfazl Akbari¹Hamed Ghoshouni²Mehrnush Saghab Torbati³Javad Ghasemi¹Raheleh Ganjali⁴Masoumeh Sadeghi^5,6Mahnaz Mozdourian^7*

• ¹Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
• ²Rajaei Cardiovascular, Medical and Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Alborz, Iran
• ³Islamic Azad University, Zahedan, Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran
• ⁴Department of Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
• ⁵Metabolic Syndrome Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
• ⁶Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
• ⁷Lung Diseases Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Background: Visfatin has been demonstrated to have pro-inflammatory effects and is involved in several respiratory disorders, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and pneumonia. However, there are some inconsistent findings. This study aimed to assess the association between serum visfatin levels and COPD, pneumonia, asthma, interstitial lung disease (ILD), and bronchiectasis. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted following the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched. Studies including a healthy control group and measuring serum visfatin in patients with COPD, asthma, pneumonia, bronchiectasis, or ILD were included. Stata 17 was used for data analysis. Results: Fourteen studies were included. None of them were on bronchiectasis. The analysis showed no significant difference between the COPD group and healthy controls in terms of serum visfatin levels (effect size = -0.02, %95CI: [-0.74, 0.69], p = 0.95). Similarly, analysis of visfatin levels in asthma studies showed no significant difference between patients and healthy controls (effect size = -1.51, %95CI: [-6.82, 3.79], p = 0.58). However, Serum visfatin levels were significantly higher in pneumonia patients compared to healthy controls (effect size = 1.93, %95CI: [0.91, 2.95], p < 0.01). Conclusions: Circulating levels of visfatin may be associated with pneumonia, but not COPD or asthma. However, there are still few studies on the levels of visfatin in COPD, asthma, and pneumonia patients, and there is a need for further investigation.