No causal impact of serum vascular endothelial growth factor level on temporal changes in body mass index in Japanese male workers: a five-year longitudinal study.
OBJECTIVE
It has been reported that adipocytes secrete vascular endothelial growth factor. Therefore, we conducted a 5-year longitudinal epidemiological study to further elucidate the association between vascular endothelial growth factor levels and temporal changes in body mass index.


METHODS
Our study subjects were Japanese male workers, who had regular health check-ups. Vascular endothelial growth factor levels were measured at baseline. To examine the association between vascular endothelial growth factor levels and overweight, we calculated the odds ratio using a multivariate logistic regression model. Moreover, linear mixed effect models were used to assess the association between vascular endothelial growth factor level and temporal changes in body mass index during the 5-year follow-up period.


RESULTS
Vascular endothelial growth factor levels were marginally higher in subjects with a body mass index greater than 25 kg/m2compared with in those with a body mass index less than 25 kg/m2(505.4 vs. 465.5 pg/mL, P = 0.1) and were weakly correlated with leptin levels (β: 0.05, P = 0.07). In multivariate logistic regression, subjects in the highest vascular endothelial growth factor quantile were significantly associated with an increased risk for overweight compared with those in the lowest quantile (odds ratio 1.65, 95 % confidential interval: 1.10-2.50). Moreover P for trend was significant (P for trend = 0.003). However, the linear mixed effect model revealed that vascular endothelial growth factor levels were not associated with changes in body mass index over a 5-year period (quantile 2, β: 0.06, P = 0.46; quantile 3, β: -0.06, P = 0.45; quantile 4, β: -0.10, P = 0.22; quantile 1 as reference).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggested that high vascular endothelial growth factor levels were significantly associated with overweight in Japanese males but high vascular endothelial growth factor levels did not necessarily cause obesity.
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan. imatoh@nihs.go.jp.
Takuya
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8160-7335
T
Imatoh
Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Preventive Medicine, Tenjin Clinic, Fukuoka, Japan.
Seiichiro
S
Kamimura
Saitama City Institute of Health Science and Research, Saitama, Japan.
Motonobu
M
Miyazaki
D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D050177:Overweight / Q000097:blood*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000097:blood*
D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A
Epidemiological study; Longitudinal study; Obesity; Vascular endothelial growth factor