title: Circulating proinflammatory peptides related to abdominal adiposity and cardiometabolic risk factors in healthy prepubertal children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the circulating levels of proinflammatory peptides in healthy prepubertal children in relation to abdominal obesity, measured by waist circumference (WC), and to investigate their interactions with cardiometabolic risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study of 137 healthy prepubertal children with a mean age of 8.0±0.1 years divided into three groups according to their WC as a measure of abdominal obesity: 'normal-WC' children (25th-75th percentile, n=48), 'children at risk' (75th-90th percentile, n=39), and 'abdominally obese' (≥90th percentile, n=50) children. Auxological measurements and blood pressure (BP) were taken. Fasting levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), interleukin 6 (IL6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), glucose, insulin, and lipid profile were measured. Insulin resistance (IR) was assessed by homeostasis model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Abdominally obese children had significantly higher BP, insulin, HOMA-IR, total cholesterol and triglycerides (TG) compared with their normal-WC counterparts (P<0.05). HsCRP concentrations increased proportionally with the degree of abdominal obesity (r=0.443, P<0.0001), whereas IL6 and TNF-α were not significantly associated with any of the adiposity variables. After controlling for adiposity, hsCRP was significantly correlated with systolic BP (r=0.257, P=0.004), TNF-α levels were related to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C; r=-0.216, P=0.016) and TG (r=0.196, P=0.029), whereas the relationship between IL6 and HDL-C reduced its magnitude to an insignificant level (r=-0.173, P=0.055).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Healthy prepubertal children with abdominal obesity have associated inflammatory and cardiometabolic alterations, interacting with each other.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics and Medical Genetics Internal Medicine, Varna Medical University, 55, Marin Drinov Street, Varna 9002, Bulgaria Department of Pediatrics, University of Parma, Parma 43100, Italy. sonya_galcheva@mail.bg
authors.forename: Sonya V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Galcheva
authors.forename: Violeta M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Iotova
authors.forename: Yoto T
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Yotov
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bernasconi
authors.forename: Maria E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Street
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000378:metabolism; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism; D055105:Waist Circumference
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6; D014280:Triglycerides; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D002097:C-Reactive Protein