Gene expression profiling and association of circulating lactoferrin level with obesity-related phenotypes in Latino youth.
OBJECTIVE
Low-grade inflammation is an underlying feature of obesity and identifying inflammatory markers is crucial to understanding this disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study was twofold: (i) to perform a global microarray analysis and (ii) to investigate the role of lactoferrin (LTF), one of the most altered genes, in relation to obesity in Latino youth.


METHODS
Non-diabetic Latino youth (71 males/92 females; 15.6 ± 3.2 years) were studied. A subset of 39 participants was randomly selected for global microarray analysis profiling from the whole blood sample. Serum LTF was compared between lean (n = 78) and overweight/obese (n = 85) participants.


RESULTS
Microarray analysis revealed that a total of 1870 probes were altered in expression ≥1.2-fold and P < 0.05 in overweight/obese participants compared with lean. KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analysis revealed significant enrichment for pathways including toll-like receptor (TLR) and B cell receptor signalling pathways. LTF and TLR5 were increased in expression by 2.2 and 1.5 fold, respectively, in the overweight/obese participants. Increased LTF concentrations were significantly associated with high risk of obesity-related phenotypes (all P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggest that increased LTF is associated with obesity risk among Latino youth. This finding is discordant to what has been shown in adults and suggests that age may modulate the association between LTF and obesity-related health.
Kinesiology Program, School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
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JY
Kim
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.|Mayo/ASU Center for Metabolic and Vascular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.
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LE
Campbell
Kinesiology Program, School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.|Mayo/ASU Center for Metabolic and Vascular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.|College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
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Shaibi
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.|Mayo/ASU Center for Metabolic and Vascular Biology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.|Department of Basic Medical Sciences, The University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
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DK
Coletta
D000293:Adolescent; D001130:Arizona; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology; D007781:Lactoferrin / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D010641:Phenotype
D015415:Biomarkers; C490098:LTF protein, human; D007781:Lactoferrin
Adiposity; gene expression; inflammation; paediatric