Objective To measure the serum level of adiponectin and explore its clinical implication in patients with asthma in acute exacerbation and remission phase. Methods 97 patients with asthma were recruited, including 50 patients with asthma in acute exacerbation and 47 patients in remission phase fromOctober 2010 to September 2011. 27 healthy nonsmoking volunteers of normal weight ( BMI range of 18.5-24. 9 kg/m2 ) were included as control. The concentrations of adiponectin and tumor necrosis factor alpha ( TNF-α) in serum were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ( ELISA) . The lung function was tested in all subjects. The correlations between adiponectin, TNF-αand lung function were investigated. The data was analyzed using SPSS 19. 0 software. Variables were compared with one-way ANOVA. The correlations between variables were analyzed using Peason’s correlation coefficient or Spearman correlation coefficient.Results Serum adiponectin level was significantly lower in the patients with asthma in acute exacerbation [ ( 246 ±1. 21) ng/mL] than that in the healthy subjects [ ( 9. 64 ±4. 88)ng/mL] and the patients in remission phase [ ( 3. 79 ±0. 96) ng/mL] ( P lt; 0. 01) , while serum adiponectin level was also significantly lower in the patients in asthma remission phase than that in the healthy subjects ( P lt; 0. 01) . The serum adiponectin level in the patients with asthma in acute exacerbation or in asthma remission phase was negatively correlated with the serum TNF-α level ( P lt; 0. 01) , and was positively correlated with FEV1 /predicted value ( P lt; 0. 01) . Conclusions The serum adiponectin is reduced in asthma patients and may play a protective role in asthma.