Abstract: Abstract] Objective To study the relationship between adiponectin and pati ents of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with pulmonary function,age and gender.Method 120 COPD patients with normal body mass index (BMI<24kg/m2 ) were selected,including 60 patients with acute exacerbations of COPDand 60 patients with stable COPD.And 60 healthy people were included as controls.The number of Male were equal to female in each group.This experiment was to detect the plasma adiponectin of these groups. Pulmonary function results were collected and FEV1/FVC, FEV1%predicted, RV/TLC were calculated in all subjects.Result The concentrations of plasma adiponectin of patients in acute exacerbations and stable of COPD were significantly higher than those of controls. (P<0.01). Lung function including FEV1/FVC and FEV1%predicted of patients in acute exacerbations and stable of COPD were significantly higher than those of controls. (P<0.01).But RV/TLC in acute exacerbations and stable of COPD were significantly lower than those of controls. The plasma adiponectin concentrations of female was higher than the male,and it had a significant difference (P<0.05).The concentrations of plasma adiponectin were negatively correlated with FEV1/FVC（r=-0.839，P<0.01）and FEV1%predicted(r=-0.633,P<0.01),but positively correlated with RV/TLC(r=0.864, P<0.01).Plasma adiponectin levels of male in controls were significant positively related (r=0.943,P<0.01)with age while female in controls,male and female in stable and acute exacerbations of COPD were no correlation with age (P>0.05).Conclusion Plasma adiponectin concentrations of patients in COPD were significantly elevated which suggested that adiponectin in COPD play an important part in pro-inflammatory and might be closely related with airway resistance.Plasma adiponectin concentrations might be exist in gender differences.Adiponectin concentration can be related with age.

Key words: Plasma adiponectin, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, pulmonary function, gender, age