Abstract
The prevalence of obesity and sarcopenia is high among the elderly. The simultaneous occurrence of these two disorders results in sarcopenic obesity. Research suggests that inflammation has an important role in the pathogenesis of obesity and sarcopenia. This study explores the impact of sarcopenic obesity on inflammatory markers, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). This study is a community-based cross-sectional study. The study sample consisted of 844 community-dwelling people aged 65 years and older (448 men and 396 women). Sarcopenia was characterized by low muscle mass (skeletal muscle index < 6.87 and 5.46 kg/m2 for men and women, respectively), and obesity was characterized by excess body fat (body fat percentage greater than the 60th percentile of the study sample by sex [27.82% in men and 37.61% in women]). Older individuals identified with sarcopenic obesity were those who had both sarcopenia and obesity. Inflammatory markers such as IL-6, hs-CRP, and TNF-α were measured. The prevalence rates of obesity only, sarcopenia only, and sarcopenic obesity were 32.94%, 11.85%, and 7.23%, respectively. No difference was observed in the serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-α among the four groups of combined sarcopenia and obesity status. After multivariate adjustment, the serum hs-CRP levels in the obesity only and in the sarcopenic obesity groups were 0.14 and 0.16 mg/dL among males, respectively, which were significantly higher than that in the normal group (P=0.012 and 0.036). Our results provide evidence that obesity and sarcopenic obesity are associated with increased levels of serum hs-CRP among males.
Highlights
As human beings gradually age, the basal metabolic rate and the physical activity decrease [1,2,3], which induce several problems such as obesity [3], metabolic syndrome [4,5,6], and sarcopenia [3], among others
Distributions based on age, cigarette smoking habits, and exercise behavior were significantly different among the four groups of combined sarcopenia and obesity status (Table 1)
We found that the serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) (hs-CRP) levels among males with sarcopenic obesity increased, but not among females
Summary
As human beings gradually age, the basal metabolic rate and the physical activity decrease [1,2,3], which induce several problems such as obesity [3], metabolic syndrome [4,5,6], and sarcopenia (loss of fat-free mass) [3], among others. In the 2005 to 2008 survey, the prevalence of obesity increased up to 22.0%. Obesity is a chronic and systemic inflammatory disease, which is caused by the excessive consumption of energy that leads to the accumulation of adipose tissue. IL-6 stimulates the liver to synthesize acute phase proteins, which results in increased serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level. Based on a previous study, high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) is closely associated with abdominal obesity [9]. A few association studies have identified the connection between hs-CRP and obesity [10, 11]. When obese patients undergo weight loss, CRP and IL-6 are significantly reduced [12]. Animal experiments have provided evidence that obesity increases TNF-α levels [13], which results in chronic systemic inflammation [14]
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