Abstract
Objectives. To examine markers of inflammation in 9- and 15-year-olds with high waist circumference and compare these with controls, and to examine the relationships between inflammatory markers and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Methods. Cross-sectional analysis of data from 2 299 Norwegian 9- and 15-year-olds participating in the “Physical activity among Norwegian Children Study”. In each sex and age group, the 10 participants with the highest waist circumference (HW) were selected (n=40) for analyses, and a random sample of 40 participants within the same groups were included as controls. Inflammatory markers included C-reactive protein (CRP), leptin, adiponectin, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), resistin and interleukin-6 (IL-6). The CVD risk factors included blood pressure, glucose, insulin, triglycerides and high density lipoprotein cholesterol. Results. HW participants had elevated levels of CRP (mean difference 1.50 mg/l; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.33 to 2.66), PAI-1 (mean difference 13.3 ng/ml; 95% CI 4.1 to 22.5) and HGF (mean difference 0.29 ng/ml; 95% CI 0.07 to 0.51) compared with controls. All CVD risk factors differed between the HW group and controls. The CVD risk factors were not associated with TNFα or IL-6, but CRP, HGF and PAI-1 were related to the metabolic risk score. Conclusions. Low grade systemic inflammation is already present in youth with high waist circumference. CRP, HGF and PAI-1 may be related to the adverse overall metabolic risk profile observed in these children and adolescents.
Acknowledgements
Financial support was received from the Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian Directorate of Health and the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. The authors thank all the test personnel for their work during the data collection, the staff at the Central Laboratory Ullevaal University Hospital, the Hormon Laboratory Aker University Hospital and the Department of Biomaterials, University of Oslo for employing blood analysis.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.