Elevated Serum Level of DHEAS as a Hormone and IL-6 as a Proinflammatory Cytokine May Better Indicate Metabolic Syndrome in PCOS Women

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is the most prevalent metabolic disorder in reproductive-age women, indeed multifactorial condition. Cytokines such as TNF-alpha and IL-6 have influence on several metabolic activities. The increase in dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is thought to play an important role in IL-6-mediated pathogenetic effects in PCOS women. The aim of this study is to explore whether TNF-alpha and IL-6 are correlated hormone levels in PCOS disease. We recruited 65 PCOS patients and 45 healthy controls. The serum IL-6, TNF-alpha, levels were measured by ELISA and clinical characteristics were measured. Both serum IL-6, TNF-alpha levels (p<0.01), or the serum TSH, FSH, LH, PRL levels were significantly higher in the patients of PCOS (p<0.01). Serum IL-6 levels were correlated with DHEAS level (r=-0.4186, p<0.01). DHEAS level tended to be higher in PCOS women with a correlation between age, BMI, IL-6 level and positively correlated with FSH, LH and PRL levels (p<0.01). There was an elevation of TSH level in the PCOS group (2.4±1.5) vs. control group (1.8±1.6). However, in control samples, there was no correlation between TNF alpha and IL-6, while in the PCOS samples positive correlation, was obtained. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was higher than the control (20.38±13.2) group vs. PCOS women (128.33±33.8) but only 3.44 % of them had Type II diabetes. HOMA-IR index was higher in the PCOS group (8.26±15.06) vs. control group (2.12±0.88) too. There was a correlation between age and IL-6 level and BMI. Serum IL-6 and DHEAS levels were significantly altered in PCOS patients and determined which might be PCOS prognostic importance.