Change in adiposity is associated with change in glycoprotein acetyls but not hsCRP in adolescents with severe obesity.

Obesity-associated chronic inflammation mediates the development of adverse cardiometabolic outcomes. There are sparse data on associations between severe obesity and inflammatory biomarkers in adolescence; most are cross-sectional and limited to acute phase reactants. Here, we investigate associations between adiposity measures and inflammatory biomarkers in children and adolescents with severe obesity both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. From the Childhood Overweight Biorepository of Australia (COBRA) study, a total of n = 262 participants, mean age 11.5 years (SD 3.5) with obesity had measures of adiposity (body mass index, BMI; % above the 95th BMI-centile, %>95th BMI-centile; waist circumference, WC; waist/height ratio, WtH; % total body fat, %BF; % truncal body fat, %TF) and inflammation biomarkers (glycoprotein acetyls, GlycA; high-sensitivity C-Reactive Protein, hsCRP; white blood cell count, WBC; and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, NLR) assessed at baseline. Ninety-eight individuals at mean age of 15.9 years (3.7) participated in a follow-up study 5.6 (2.1) years later. Sixty-two individuals had longitudinal data. Linear regression models, adjusted for age and sex for cross-sectional analyses were applied. To estimate longitudinal associations between change in adiposity measures with inflammation biomarkers, models were adjusted for baseline measures of adiposity and inflammation. All adiposity measures were cross-sectionally associated with GlycA, hsCRP and WBC at both time points. Change in BMI, %>95th BMI-centile, WC, WtH and %TF were associated with concomitant change in GlycA and WBC, but not in hsCRP and NLR. GlycA and WBC but not hsCRP and NLR may be useful in assessing adiposity-related severity of chronic inflammation over time. • Change in severity of adiposity associates with change in GlycA and WBC in youth. • Change in adiposity is not associated with change in hsCRP or NLR. • GlycA and WBC represent severity of obesity-related chronic inflammation in youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Obesity Research & Clinical Practice is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)