Relationship between inflammatory biomarkers and insulin resistance in excess-weight Latin children

Abstract

Background: Excess weight, inflammation, and insulin resistance (IR) are associated, but the prevalence of and biomarkers for IR in Latin children are unknown. Purpose: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of IR in prepubertal and pubertal Latin children with excess weight and explore the usefulness of different biomar-kers of low-grade inflammation for identifying IR status. Methods: Sixty-eight children (31 boys, 37 girls; approximately 11 years of age) with excess weight (overweight and obese) and 20 healthy normal-weight children (12 boys, 8 girls; approximately 12 years of age) were included. Anthropometric parameters, insulin, neutrophil/lympho-cyte ratio, platelet/lymphocyte ratio, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-6, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and myeloperoxi-dase were assessed and IR was determined by homeo-stasis model assessment index (cutoff points: 2.67 and 2.22 in prepubertal boys and girls and 5.55 and 3.82 in pubertal boys and girls, respectively). Intergroup differ-ences were compared, correlations were investigated using Pearson correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple linear regression analyses were performed to estimate the relationship between inflammatory biomarkers and IR. Results: The prevalence of IR among overweight children was 62%. IL-6 levels differed between overweight and obese boys, while erythrocyte sedimentation rate, MCP-1, TNF-α, IL-6, hs-CRP, and sCD40L differed between obese and normal-weight boys. In contrast, sCD40L levels were increased in overweight versus normal-weight girls, while MCP-1, TNF-α, IL-6, and sCD40L differed between obese and normal-weight girls. Furthermore, MCP-1 and sCD40L levels and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were positively correlated with IR; however, a stepwise regression analysis that adjusted for the body mass index (BMI) z score, sex, and age showed that none were good predic-tors of IR status. Conclusion: The prevalence of IR is high among Latin children with excess weight. Although some inflammatory biomarkers differed among groups, none robustly predicted IR.