Research Article Adipokines NUCB2/Nesfatin-1 and Visfatin as Novel Inflammatory Factors in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Sirpa Leivo-Korpela, 1,2 Lauri Lehtimäki, 2,3 Mari Hämälainen, 2 Katriina Vuolteenaho, 2 Lea Kööbi, 4 Ritva Järvenpää, 4 Hannu Kankaanranta, 5 Seppo Saarelainen, 1 and Eeva Moilanen 2 1 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Tampere University Hospital, PL 2000, 33521 Tampere, Finland 2 e Immunopharmacology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital, 33014 Tampere, Finland 3 Allergy Centre, Tampere University Hospital, PL 2000, 33521 Tampere, Finland 4 Medical Imaging Centre, Tampere University Hospital, PL 2000, 33521 Tampere, Finland 5 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Sein¨ ajoki Central Hospital, 60220 Sein¨ ajoki, Finland Correspondence should be addressed to Sirpa Leivo-Korpela; sirpa.leivo-korpela@uta.i Received 13 February 2014; Revised 22 April 2014; Accepted 22 April 2014; Published 6 May 2014 Academic Editor: Vera L. Petricevich Copyright © 2014 Sirpa Leivo-Korpela et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is a common lung disease characterized by airlow limitation and systemic inlammation. Recently, adipose tissue mediated inlammation has gathered increasing interest in the pathogenesis of the disease. In this study, we investigated the role of novel adipocytokines nesfatin-1 and visfatin in COPD by measuring if they are associated with the inlammatory activity, lung function, or symptoms. Plasma levels of NUCB2/nesfatin-1 and visfatin were measured together with IL-6, IL-8, TNF-, and MMP-9, lung function, exhaled nitric oxide, and symptoms in 43 male patients with emphysematous COPD. he measurements were repeated in a subgroup of the patients ater four weeks’ treatment with inhaled luticasone. Both visfatin and NUCB2/nesfatin-1 correlated positively with plasma levels of IL-6 ( = 0.341,  = 0.027 and rho = 0.401,  = 0.008, resp.) and TNF- ( = 0.305,  = 0.052 and rho = 0.329,  = 0.033, resp.) and NUCB2/nesfatin-1 also with IL-8 (rho = 0.321,  = 0.036) in patients with COPD. Further, the plasma levels of visfatin correlated negatively with pulmonary difusing capacity ( = −0.369,  = 0.016). Neither of the adipokines was afected by luticasone treatment and they were not related to steroid-responsiveness. he present results introduce adipocytokines NUCB2/nesfatin-1 and visfatin as novel factors associated with systemic inlammation in COPD and suggest that visfatin may mediate impaired pulmonary difusing capacity. 1. Introduction Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disorder characterized by persistent airlow limitation with systemic manifestations [1]. In addition to the inlammatory process in the lungs, there is a low-grade systemic inlammation which is linked to the pathogenesis of the comorbidities present in COPD [2–4]. It is not known whether systemic inlammation is a spillover of the inlammation present in the lungs or if pulmonary manifestations are one form of expression of this systemic disease [3, 5]. Smoking, lung hyperinlation, tissue hypoxia, and skeletal muscle dysfunc- tion have been suggested as possible factors involved in the pathogenesis of the systemic inlammation in COPD [2]. Recently, adipose tissue mediated inlammation has gathered increasing interest as a signiicant mechanism in inducing and promoting systemic inlammation in COPD [4]. Hindawi Publishing Corporation Mediators of Inflammation Volume 2014, Article ID 232167, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/232167