Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42191930›Full record

ArticleCommunications medicine2026

Metabolic hormone and adipokine alterations in major depressive disorder in relation to the acute-phase inflammatory response and early-life adversity.

Tangcong Chen, Yueyang Luo, Mengqi Niu, Mengdie Li, Abbas F Almulla, Marta Kubera, Yingqian Zhang, Michael Maes

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Article in Communications medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Tangcong Chen *Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Yueyang Luo *Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Mengqi NiuSichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Mengdie LiSichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Abbas F AlmullaSichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7667-6731
Marta KuberaDepartment of Experimental Neuroendocrinology, Laboratory of Immunoendocrinology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Maj Institute of Pharmacology, Krakow, Poland.
Yingqian ZhangSichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Michael MaesSichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. michaelmaes@uestc.edu.cn.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMajor depressive disorder (MDD) involves dysregulated neuroimmune, metabolic, and inflammatory pathways. This study characterized metabolic hormone and adipokine profiles in Chinese MDD patients stratified for metabolic syndrome (MetS), and examined associations with depression severity (OSOD), suicidal ideation (SI), illness recurrence (ROI), and physiosomatic symptoms.

methodsWe enrolled 125 MDD inpatients (age 18-70 years) and 40 healthy controls (age 20-65 years). Fasting serum insulin, glucose, glucagon, GIP, GLP‑1, leptin, secretin, PAI‑1, resistin, ghrelin, and adiponectin were measured. The acute‑phase inflammatory (API) response was assessed using albumin, transferrin, and monomeric CRP. Group comparisons used ANOVA or general linear models (adjusted for age, BMI, MetS) with false discovery rate correction. Associations were tested with Pearson correlations, stepwise multiple regression, and binary logistic regression. Discriminatory performance was evaluated by ROC‑AUC.

resultsMDD showed significantly lower insulin, glucagon, and PAI‑1, along with a higher API index (all adjusted). A composite GAP index (ghrelin, adiponectin, PAI‑1) correlated negatively with OSOD, SI, ROI, physiosomatic symptoms, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). A model combining GAP index, API index, and ACEs discriminated MDD from controls with AUC = 0.864 and 80% accuracy.

conclusionSevere MDD in this Chinese inpatient sample is characterized by suppressed anabolic hormones and lower adipokines coupled with mild chronic inflammation, independent of MetS. This hormonal‑immune‑metabolic signature is integral to MDD pathophysiology.

Identifiers

PMID42191930
PMCPMC13490482

What Socratic holds

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.