Evaluation of the correlation between fetuin-B levels and essential hypertension: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Fetuin-B, a cytokine that regulates lipid metabolism, has recently been linked to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) such as coronary heart disease. In this study, we discussed the relationship between fetuin-B and essential hypertension. Method: A bioinformatics analysis of fetuin-B was performed. A total of 206 with essential hypertension (EH) and 180 age-and-sex-matched healthy subjects (NT) were enrolled. Plasma fetuin-B, endothelin-1 (ET-1), nitric oxide (NO) and adiponectin (ADI) levels were measured using ELISA kits. Results: Bioinformatics analysis has revealed that fetuin-B plays an important role in pathways such as lipid metabolism. Compared with healthy subjects, serum fetuin-B levels in patients with essential hypertension were significantly increased. Correlation analysis showed that the serum fetuin-B level was positively correlated with SBP, DBP, BMI, FAT, WHR, IMT, LDL-C, GGT, ALT, albumin, FBG, glycated hemoglobin, and ET-1 in the overall study subjects (all P < 0.05) and negatively correlated with HDL-C, ADI, and NO (All P < 0.05). Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that SBP, FBG, LDL-C, ADI, and ET-1 were independent factors affecting serum fetuin-B. A binary logistic regression analysis showed that fetuin-B was an independent risk factor for primary hypertension (OR: 1.060, 95%CI: 1.034–1.086, P < 0.001). ROC curve analysis was used to evaluate the predictive value of fetuin-B for primary hypertension, and the optimal cutoff point was 83.14 μg/mL (sensitivity 77.4%, specificity 63.3%) (AUC) = 0.7738, 95% CI 0.7276–0.8200, P < 0.001). Conclusion: Elevated fetuin-B levels are associated with an increased risk of essential hypertension.