Chronic Low-grade Inflammation and Haematological, Circulatory, Metabolic, and Hepatic Abnormalities in Childhood Obesity

Reizo Baba, Osaaki Ando, Kyoko Shinohara, Jun Tanaka
DOI: 10.4236/ojped.2011.11002                

Abstract

Background: Little is known as to the associations between childhood obesity and chronic low-grade inflammation, circulatory, hepatic, metabolic and haematological abnormalities. Design: Case-control study. Methods: A total of 1,871 boys and 1,810 girls were measured anthropometric data, haemoglobin concentration, white blood cell count (WBCC), platelet count, blood pressure, plasma concentrations of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), triglyceride (TG), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. The subjects were classified into three body mass index categories depending on the international standard definition for child overweight and obesity. Results: Systolic blood pressure, serum levels of aminotransferases, TG and HDL-cholesterol, WBCC, and platelet counts were related with BMI in both boys and girls. Obese girls had high risks of having relatively high levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP), ALT, TG, WBCC, platelet count, and relatively low level of HDL-cholesterol. Obese boys had high risks of having relatively high levels of SBP, diastolic blood pressure, AST, ALT, TG, WBCC, Hb concentration, platelet count, and relatively low level of HDL-cholesterol. Conclusions: Childhood obesity is related with chronic inflammation, as well as circulatory, hepatic, metabolic and haematological abnormalities.

Keywords

obesity, metabolic syndrome, inflammation, platelet, children

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Hayman LL, Meininger JC, Daniels SR, McCrindle BW, Helden L, Ross J, et al. Primary prevention of cardio-vascular disease in nursing practice: Focus on children and youth: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association Committee on Atherosclerosis, Hyper-tension, and Obesity in Youth of the Council on Cardio-vascular Disease in the Young, Council on Cardiovascu-lar Nursing, Council on Epidemiology and Prevention, and Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabo-lism. Circulation 2007; 116
[2]	Weiss R, Dziura J, Burgert TS. Obesity and the metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents. N Engl J Med 2004; 350: 2362-74.
[3]	Rocchini AP. Childhood obesity and a diabetes epidemic. N Engl J Med 2002; 346: 854-5.
[4]	Strauss RS, Pollack HA. Epidemic increase in childhood overweight. 1986–1998. JAMA 2001; 286: 2845-48.
[5]	Reilly JJ, Dorosty AR. Epidemic of obesity in UK chil-dren. Lancet 1999; 354: 1874-5.
[6]	Baba R, Nagashima M, Asai T, Kato Y. Effect of physical activity and readiness for exercise on the development of obesity in adolescents (in Japanese). Jpn J Clin Sports Med 2004; 12: 346-51.
[7]	Baba R, Koketsu M, Nagashima M, Inasaka H, Yoshi-naga M, Yokota M. Adolescent obesity adversely affects blood pressure and resting heart rate. Circ J 2007; 71: 722-6.
[8]	Baba R, Iwao N, Iwao S, Koketsu M, Nagashima M, Inasaka H. Risk of obesity enhanced by poor physical ac-tivity in high school students. Pediatr Int 2006; 48: 268-73.
[9]	DeFronzo RA, Ferrannini E. Insulin resistance. A multi-faceted syndrome responsible for NIDDM, obesity, hy-pertension, dyslipidemia, and atherosclerotic cardiovas-cular disease. Diabetes Care 1991; 14: 173-94.
[10]	Nguyen NT, Magno CP, Lane KT, Hinojosa MW, Lane JS. Association of hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and metabolic syndrome with obesity: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999 to 2004. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2002; 87: 3023-8.
[11]	Rahmouni K, Correia MLG, Haynes WG, Mark AL. Obe-sity-associated hypertension: new insights into mecha-nisms. Hypertension 2005; 45: 9-14.
[12]	Hall JE, Hildebrandta DA, Kuo J. Obesity hypertension: role of leptin and sympathetic nervous system. Am J Hy-pertens 2001; 14 (suppl 1): S103-15.
[13]	Wanless IR, Lentz JS. Fatty liver hepatitis (steatohepati-tis) and obesity: An autopsy study with analysis of risk factors. Hepatology 2005; 12: 1106-10.
[14]	Marceau P, Biron S, Hould FS, Marceau S, Simard S, Thung SN, et al. Liver pathology and the metabolic syn-drome X in severe obesity. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1999; 84:1513-7.
[15]	Marchesini G, Brizi M, Bianchi G, Tomassetti S, Bugianesi E, Lenzi M, et al. Nonalcoholic fatty liver dis-ease: a feature of the metabolic syndrome. Diabetes 2001; 50: 1844-50.
[16]	Pagano G, Pacini G, Musso G, Gambino R, Mecca F, Depetris N, et al. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome: further evidence for an etiologic association. Hepatology 2002; 35: 367-72.
[17]	Wellen KE, Hotamisligil GS.Obesity-induced inflamma-tory changes in adipose tissue. J Clin Invest 2003; 112: 1785-8.
[18]	Lee YH, Pratley RE, The evolving role of inflammation in obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Curr Diab Rep 2005; 5: 70-5.
[19]	Falcon C, Pfliegler G, Deckmyn H, Vermylen J. The platelet insulin receptor: Detection, partial characteriza-tion, and search for a function. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 1988; 157: 1190-6.
[20]	Trovati M, Anfossi G, Cavalot F, Massucco P, Mularoni E, Emanuelli G. Insulin directly reduces platelet sensitivity to aggregating agents: Studies in vitro and in vivo. Dia-betes 1988; 37: 780-6.
[21]	Westerbacka J, Yki-J?rvinen H, Turpeinen A, Rissanen A, Vehkavaara S, Syrj?l? M, et al. Inhibition of plate-let-collagen interaction: An in vivo action of insulin abol-ished by insulin resistance in obesity. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2002; 22: 167-72.
[22]	Herder C, Schneitler S, Rathmann W, Haastert B, Schneitler H, Winkler H, et al. Low-grade inflammation, obesity, and insulin resistance in adolescents. Clin Endo-crinol Metab 2007; 92: 4569-74.
[23]	Cole TJ, Bellizzi MC, Flegal KM, Dietz WH. Establish-ing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: international survey. BMJ 2000; 320:1240-3.
[24]	Festa A, D'Agostino R Jr, Howard G, Mykk?nen L, Tracy RP, Haffner SM. Chronic subclinical inflammation as part of the insulin resistance syndrome: the Insulin Re-sistance Atherosclerosis Study (IRAS). Circulation 2000; 102: 42-7.
[25]	Wilson CA, Bekele G, Nicolson M, Ravussin E, Prat-leyRE. Relationship of the white blood cell count to body fat: role of leptin. Br J Haematol 2003; 99: 447-51.
[26]	Thaulow E, Erikssen J, Sandvik L, Stormorken H, Cohn PF. Blood platelet count and function are related to total and cardiovascular death in apparently healthy men. Cir-culation 1991; 84: 613-7.
[27]	Taniguchi A, Fukushima M, Seino Y, Sakai M, Yoshii S, Nagasaka S, et al. Platelet count is independently associ-ated with insulin resistance in non-obese Japanese type 2 diabetic patients. Metabolism 2003; 52: 1246-9.
[28]	Falcon CR, Cattaneo M, Ghidoni A, Mannucci PM. The in vitro production of thromboxane B2 by platelets of diabetic patients is normal at physiological concentra-tions of ionized calcium. Thromb Haemost 1993; 70: 389-92.
[29]	Sorof JM, Poffenbarger T, Franco K, Bernard L, Portman RJ. Isolated systolic hypertension, obesity, and hyperkinetic hemodynamic states in children. J Pediatr 2002; 140: 660-6.