The range of biomarkers to predict the metabolic syndrome that causes cardiovascular diseases and diabetes has expanded.

A research team led by Professors Lee Yong-jae and Son Da-hye of the Family Medicine Department at Gangnam Severance Hospital released a review paper compiling recent studies on the “new biomarkers of metabolic syndrome” on Thursday.

Metabolic syndrome refers to the simultaneous outbreaks of various metabolic diseases, such as abdominal obesity, increased blood triglycerides, decreased high-density cholesterol, high blood pressure, and fasting blood sugar disorders, in an individual.

In the paper, the research team described various biomarkers with new possibilities and their pathological mechanisms aside from existing, well-known indices.

The mechanism of metabolic syndrome has not yet been identified precisely, but insulin resistance and chronic inflammation are known to play a major role. Excessive buildup of fat in the body causes problems in the insulin signaling system, resulting in insulin resistance and blood sugar increase.

Also, the accumulated adipose tissue secretes oxidative stress and inflammatory substances, causing arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance.

Based on these occurrence mechanisms, the research team divided metabolic syndrome indicators into insulin resistance-related indicators, inflammatory indicators, adipocaine (inflammatory substances secreted by adipose tissue), oxidation stress, and other general chemical indicators.

The homeostasis model of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) is mainly used as insulin-resistance indicators, triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein (TG/HDL) ratio, and TyG index composed of triglycerides and fasting blood sugar.

Among them, TG/HDL ratio and TyG index have recently proven their usefulness in many studies, as they are easy to calculate and faithfully reflect insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

Among inflammatory indicators, it was also confirmed that Interleukin 6, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), C-reactive protein (CRP), and leukocyte levels are related to metabolic syndrome. Therefore, if these indicators are high, even if no diseases push up inflammatory indicators, one might as well suspect metabolic syndrome.

Besides, among adipocaine, leptin, adiponectin, adiponectin/leptin ratio, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) were indicators that represent metabolic syndrome.

Leptin is a hormone that makes people feel full. It is secreted from fat cells and has an appetite-suppressing effect, which plays a role in controlling food intake. However, metabolic syndrome patients’ brains don't recognize the leptin signal, resulting in obesity despite an increase in leptin secretion, it was learned.

In contrast, adiponectin is a hormone that increases insurance sensitivity and prevents diabetes. However, study results showed that it was lower in people with metabolic syndrome.

“Metabolic syndrome is a disease whose prevalence increases so rapidly that one in three Koreans has it. Therefore, early diagnosis and prevention are more important than anything else,” Professor Lee said. “The study contains many biomarkers with new possibilities and those commonly used in clinical practices so that it will help doctors’ early diagnoses.

The paper “New markers in metabolic syndrome” was published in “Advances in clinical chemistry,” an international journal in the chemical clinical area.