Abstract
In adult obesity, low-grade systemic inflammation is considered an important step in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance (IR). The association between obesity and inflammation is less well established in adolescents. Here, we ascertain the importance of inflammation in IR among obese adolescents by utilizing either random forest (RF) classification or mediation analysis approaches. The inflammation balance score, composed of eight pro- and anti-inflammatory makers, as well as most of the individual inflammatory markers differed significantly between lean and overweight/obese. In contrast, adiponectin was the only individual marker selected as a predictor of IR by RF, and the balance score only revealed a medium-to-low importance score. Neither adiponectin nor the inflammation balance score was found to mediate the relationship between obesity and IR. These findings do not support the premise that low-grade systemic inflammation is a key for the expression of IR in the human. Prospective longitudinal studies should confirm these findings.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health DK 083537 and by 1UL1RR029891 from the National Center for Research Resources, and the Nathan S Kline Institute. Authors thank the NYU Langone Medical Center Immune-Monitoring Core for carrying out the inflammatory marker assays.
Authors’ Contributions
AC contributed to the study concept and design. AM and AC contributed to the acquisition of data. RA, AG, ECM, and AC contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data. RA, AG, ECM, OF, and AC contributed to the drafting of the manuscript. RA, OF, and AC contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. RA, AG, and ECM contributed to the statistical analysis. AC has obtained funding. None has contributed to the administrative, technical, and material support. AC did the study supervision.
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The data used in this study is comprised of subjects studied in two parallel studies conducted by the Brain, Obesity, and Diabetes Lab and approved by the institutional review board (IRB) at the New York University School of Medicine. Parental consent and participant assent was obtained from participants under age 18, and participant consent from those ≥18 years of age.
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Adabimohazab, R., Garfinkel, A., Milam, E.C. et al. Does Inflammation Mediate the Association Between Obesity and Insulin Resistance?. Inflammation 39, 994–1003 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10753-016-0329-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10753-016-0329-z