In summary, our study describes an influence of SAT topography on adiponectin serum levels and provides first evidence that incipient atherosclerosis is associated with low serum levels of this adipocytokine.

We show here that increased oxidative stress is associated with migraine and contributes to migraine-related metabolic risk like nitrosative stress, an atherogenic lipid profile and hyperinsulinemia. Our data suggest that oxidative stress may represent a key event in the pathophysiology of migraine and a suitable therapeutic target.

We show here that normal weight migraineurs exhibit independent of aura symptoms an atherogenic lipid profile, which shares common features with obesity-related lipid alterations. Our data suggest that migraine is associated with a higher risk for cardiovascular disease and its clinical consequences.

We evaluated total adiponectin, high‐molecular weight (HMW), medium‐molecular weight (MMW), low‐molecular weight (LMW) adiponectin subfractions, clinical parameters, routine lab parameters, lipids, metabolic, inflammatory biomarkers, and intima‐media thickness (IMT) of common carotid arteries in 70 obese juveniles and adolescents with preatherosclerosis and 55 normal weight controls of similar age and gender distribution. Compared with the controls, the obese probands had a significantly increased IMT (P < 0.001) and elevated ultra‐sensitive C‐reactive protein (P < 0.001) indicating early vascular burden. Total and HMW adiponectin were significantly decreased in the obese cohort. The ratio between HMW and total adiponectin was significantly decreased in obese probands whereas the LMW/total adiponectin ratio was increased. Overall, total‐, HMW, and MMW adiponectin were significantly negatively correlated with carotid IMT. The HMW/total adiponectin ratio correlated significantly negatively, and the LMW/total adiponectin ratio significantly positively with the IMT. Furthermore, HMW adiponectin was significantly positively correlated with high‐density lipoprotein (HDL)‐cholesterol and serum apolipoprotein A1, and negatively with BMI, triglycerides, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA)‐index, leptin, liver transaminases, and uric acid. This remained stable after controlling for gender. Multiple regression analysis of body measures and all other lab parameters showed the strongest correlation between HMW adiponectin and carotid IMT (β = −0.35, P < 0.001). Taken together, our study provides the first evidence that preatherosclerosis in obese juveniles and adolescents is associated with altered subfractions of adiponectin, whereas after multiple testing the HMW subfraction showed a better correlation to IMT compared with total adiponectin.

We show here that increased MMP activity is tightly associated with migraine and migraine-related hyperinsulinemia and atherogenic lipid alterations. Our findings represent a new pathophysiological mechanism, which may be of clinical relevance, especially in regard to therapeutic approaches using MMP inhibitors.