ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION. Currently, in the context of personalised medicine, the search for new biomarkers of metabolic syndrome, the assessment of their relationship with lipid and carbohydrate metabolism indicators appears to be an important and relevant area of research. This study is devoted to assessing the relationship between metabolic factors and circulating levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in patients with metabolic syndrome.

AIM. To determine the association between abdominal obesity and laboratory markers as well as immunological parameters in patients with metabolic syndrome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. Totally 280 patients were examined. Depending on the presence of metabolic disorders, all patients were divided into two groups: group 1 – 140 patients with signs of metabolic syndrome; group 2 – 140 patients without metabolic syndrome. The examination included measurement of waist circumference, triglycerides, low- and high-density lipoproteins, glucose, serum cytokine levels (IL-1b, IL-6, IFN-g, macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), CCL2, CCL7, CCL3, and CCL15). 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Evaluation of the immunological status in patient groups revealed the elevated serum levels of MCP-1/CCL2 (p = 0.027), MIP-1d/CCL15 (p < 0.0001) and MIF (p < 0.0001) in the 1st group of patients. A positive correlation was found between CCL3, CCL2 and MIF concentrations and glucose levels (r = 0.990; r = 0.320; r = 0.580), LDL (r = 0.310; r = 1.0; r = 0.760) and the number of components of the metabolic syndrome (r = 0.630; r = 0.540; r = 0.950).

CONCLUSION. Our findings indicate the presence of subclinical chronic inflammation in patients with metabolic syndrome, which can be regarded as a cytokine imbalance, resulting from the potentiation of immune processes in the context of disorders of fat, lipid, and carbohydrate metabolism. However, further large-scale prospective studies with an expanded spectrum and monitoring of key immunological and laboratory parameters in patients with metabolic disorders are necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the main functions of the identified biomarkers.

KEYWORDS: metabolic syndrome, pro-inflammatory chemokines, macrophage migration inhibitory factor, metabolic factors

For citation: Tynterova A.М., Mikhailova L.V., Shusharina N.N. Relationship Between Immunological and Metabolic Parameters in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome. Comorbidity Neurology. 2026; 3 (1): 7–13. https://doi.org/10.62505/3034-185x-2026-3-1-7-13 

*For correspondence: Anastasya М. Tynterova, Ph.D. Sci. (Med.), Senior Researcher of Baltic Center for Neurotechnology and Artificial Intelligence, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russia, e-mail: antynterova@mail.ru.

Received: Nov 28, 2025
Revised: Dec 18, 2025
Accepted: Dec 22, 2025

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ADDITONAL INFORMATION

Anastasya М. Tynterova, Ph.D. Sci. (Med.), Senior Researcher of Baltic Center for Neurotechnology and Artificial Intelligence, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russia. E-mail: antynterova@mail.ru. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1743-4713

Larisa V. Mikhailova, Ph.D. Sci. (Med.), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Therapy of the Institute of Medicine and Life Sciences, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russia. E-mail: mihalysa@mail.ru. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5070-5955

Natalia N. Shusharina, Ph.D. Sci. (Ped.), Head of the Development and Innovation Department, Senior Researcher of Baltic Center for Neurotechnology and Artificial Intelligence, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, Russia. E-mail: nnshusharina@gmail.com. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8848-6134

Author contributions. All authors confirm that their authorship complies with the international ICMJE criteria (all authors made a significant
contribution to the development of the concept, the conduct of the study and the preparation of the article, read and approved the final version before publication). Special contributions: Tynterova A.M. – conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing – original draft, visualization, supervision; Mikhailova L.V. – data curation, project administration, review & editing; Shusharina N.N. – resources, funding acquisition, software, validation, formal analysis.

Funding. This work was performed within the scope of the of the “Priority 2030” program and State assignment FZWM-2024-0013 (Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University).

Disclosure. The authors declare no apparent or potential conflicts of interest related to the publication of this article.

Ethics Approval. The study was approved by the Independent Ethics Committee of the Center for Clinical Research of Immanuel Kant Baltic
Federal University (Kaliningrad, Russia) (protocol No. 2 of April 27, 2021). 

Informed consent for publication. All patients, and if it is impossible to review and sign, persons responsible for the patients (relatives, social workers, etc.) on behalf of the patients undergoing examination and participating in this study, signed informed consent.

The content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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