The novel adipocytokine visfatin is activated in inflammatory bowel disease

Background: Adipocytokines are a family of proteins that are mainly derived from adipose tissue. Adipocytokines like leptin and adiponectin have been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis of intestinal inflammation. Recently, a novel adipocytokine – visfatin – has been identified. Besides visfatin's extraordinary property as insulin-mimicking cytokine, several reports and our current experimental data suggest that visfatin acts as a pro-inflammatory cytokine. In this work we determined the activation state of human visfatin in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Methods: Serum samples of 56 patients wit…