Correlation Between Circulating Adropin Levels and Patients with PCOS: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

An increasing number of young women suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Reasonable diagnosis and monitoring are important steps in the treatment of PCOS. Therefore, we performed an updated meta-analysis between adropin levels and PCOS to identify their relationship. We searched 8 databases (Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, CBM, clinicaltrials.gov, OpenGrey) for relevant studies using the following search items: 'PCOS or polycystic ovary syndrome or Stein-Leventhal syndrome' AND 'adropin'. Standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals(CIs) were used as the outcomes. Data were analyzed using Revman 5.3, Stata 16, and MetaXL. Nineteen articles were include in this meta-analysis. The PCOS group had significantly lower adropin levels than the healthy groups (SMD = -2.79 ng/ml, 95%CI (-3.42, -2.16), p < 0.00001). Significant publication bias (p < 0.05) was observed; additionally, the results were robust based on metatrim and fail-safe number (Nfs). Meta-regression analysis showed that age, glucose ratio and luteinizing hormone (LH) may be sources of heterogeneity (univariate meta-regression analysis: P = 0.058 vs P = 0.026 vs P = 0.091). Furthermore, BMI, insulin, glucose, HOMA-IR, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) may be closely related to adropin levels (p < 0.05) owing to meta-analysis of correlation coefficient. We found there was a correlation between adropin levels and PCOS: circulating adropin levels were significantly lower in patients with PCOS than healthy controls, which may be helpful for clinical diagnosis and detection of PCOS.

Automated summary

This study conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between adropin levels and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The results showed that patients with PCOS had significantly lower adropin levels compared to healthy controls. Additionally, certain factors such as age, glucose ratio, and luteinizing hormone (LH) were identified as potential sources of heterogeneity. Furthermore, BMI, insulin, glucose, and various lipid profiles were found to be closely related to adropin levels. These findings suggest that adropin levels may be useful for clinical diagnosis and detection of PCOS.