Salivary resistin level and its association with insulin resistance in obese individuals

The escalating global burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus necessitates the implementation of strategies that are both more reliable and faster in order to improve the early identification of insulin resistance (IR) in high-risk groups, including overweight and obese individuals. The use of salivary biomarkers offers a promising alternative to serum collection because it is safer, more comfortable, and less painful to obtain saliva samples. As obesity is the foremost contributory factor in IR development, the adipocytokines such as leptin, adiponectin, resistin, and visfatin secreted from the adipose tissue have been studied as potential reliable biomarkers for IR. Measurement of salivary adipokines as predictors for IR has attracted widespread attention because of the strong correlation between their blood and salivary concentrations. One of the adipokines that is closely related to IR is resistin. However, there are conflicting findings on resistin’s potential role as an etiological link between obesity and IR and the reliability of measuring salivary resistin as a biomarker for IR. Hence this study reviewed the available evidence on the potential use of salivary resistin as a biomarker for IR in order to attempt to gain a better understanding of the role of resistin in the development of IR in obese individuals.