Corticosteroid-induced Lipodystrophy and Adipokines

Hypothesis: systemic therapy with corticosteroid induces morphological changes (e.g., moon face, buffalo neck) called lipodystrophy (LD). We hypothesize that this LD is associated with variation of adipocytokines (e.g., adiponectin, leptine, IL6) levels Primary objective: To show a 50% decrease in adipocytes adiponectin's expression in patients who developed LD versus those who did not developed LD during the first 3 months of a systemic therapy with corticosteroids Secondary objectives: To look for differences in the mRNA expression of 11bHSD1, SREBP1c and PPARg in fat samples of patients before and after treatment with systemic corticosteroids and between LD+ and LD-patients To compare the fat morphology before and after treatment with glucosteroids