Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) is tightly correlated with growth in juveniles without correlations to obesity related disorders.
BACKGROUND
Asymmetrical dimethylarginine (ADMA) was found to be increased in conditions associated with atherosclerosis and metabolic disorders. We investigated ADMA in obese juveniles with pre-atherosclerotic symptoms and in normal weight juveniles.


METHODS
To elucidate correlations of ADMA in juveniles with obesity related disorders such as insulin resistance, low grade inflammation, hypertension and pre-atherosclerosis, we analysed ADMA by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in 68 obese and 68 healthy, age and gender matched juveniles.


RESULTS
ADMA levels are slightly, but significantly increased (p=0.04) in obese (0.78+/-0.01 micromol/l), compared to normal weight juveniles (0.74+/-0.01 micromol/l). There are no robust correlations of ADMA with obesity related disorders, like dyslipidemia, hypertension, low-grade inflammation and pre-atherosclerosis. Age, body length and alkaline phosphatase, as markers of growth are correlated with ADMA. Multiple testing revealed that, alkaline phosphatase turned out as highly significant positively correlated with ADMA in normal weight (r=0.45/p<0.0001) and obese (r=0.59/p<0.0001) children.


CONCLUSIONS
We show here, that ADMA is slightly increased in obese juveniles without any robust correlations to obesity related disorders. ADMA is tightly correlated with alkaline phosphatase as a marker of growth in obese and normal weight, healthy juveniles.
Clinical Institute of Medical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics, Medical University of Graz, Austria. hans-juergen.gruber@klinikum-graz.at
H-J
HJ
Gruber
C
C
Mayer
A
A
Meinitzer
G
G
Almer
R
R
Horejsi
R
R
Möller
S
S
Pilz
W
W
März
R
R
Gasser
M
M
Truschnig-Wilders
H
H
Mangge
D000293:Adolescent; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000097:blood; D001120:Arginine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006128:Growth / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012044:Regression Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
C024917:symmetric dimethylarginine; C018524:N,N-dimethylarginine; D001120:Arginine; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase