Bipolar disorder patients had different levels of some of the biomarkers linked to metabolic dysfunction than healthy controls, according to a study.
The study’s participants included 57 bipolar disorder patients and a control group of 49 healthy individuals. Among the experimental group, 24 had bipolar disorder type I and the remaining 33 had bipolar disorder type II. The bipolar patients’ average duration of illness was 22 years and their average body mass index was 25.9 kg/m2. The experimental group’s ages and body mass indices were not significantly different from those of the control group.
The researchers compared the bipolar disorder patients’ and control group’s average levels of the biomarkers: C-peptide, ghrelin, glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP), glucagonlike peptide-1 (GLP-1), glucagon, insulin, leptin, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1, total), resistin, and visfatin.
Bipolar disorder patients has significantly lower levels of ghrelin, glucagon, and GLP-1 (P = .018 for ghrelin; P less than .0001 for glucagon; P less than .0001 for GLP-1), and significantly higher levels of GIP than did controls (P less than .0001).
When the bipolar I patients’ biomarker levels were compared with those of the bipolar II patients, no significant differences were found.
Additional findings included negative correlations between a patient’s level of glucagon and numbers of previous manic (r = –0.480; P less than .001), depressive (r = –0.294; P = .026), and any mood episodes (r = –0.403; P = .002). GLP-1 levels also were negatively correlated with the numbers of manic (r = –0.322; P = .015) and any mood episodes (r = –0.274 ; P = .039) experienced by a patient.
“Our findings support the hypothesis that dysregulations in serum glucagon, GLP-1, GIP, and ghrelin might be involved in [bipolar disorder] pathogenesis, particularly in the depressed phase. Moreover, the correlation of glucagon and GLP-1 alterations with number of mood episode recurrences could contribute to the identification of late-stage” bipolar disorder patients, according to Gianluca Rosso, Ph.D., of the University of Torino, Italy, and his colleagues. “Studies in larger samples are needed to confirm these data and to further investigate the common mechanism between mood and metabolic disorders.”
Read the full article here: (J Affect Disord. 2015 Sept 15;184:293-8.)