Associations between Leptin, sCD40L and Metabolic Syndrome Components in Black Females

Abstract

Less Blacks meet diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome compared to Whites, despite Blacks having a greater prevalence of obesity. Early biomarkers of obesity associated metabolic dysregulation are needed to identify high‐risk individuals and substantiate successful interventions. This study investigated associations between plasma leptin, soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), and metabolic syndrome components in healthy Black college‐aged females (n=37). Metabolic syndrome phenotypes assessed included: waist circumference (WC), resting blood pressure (BP), fasting plasma glucose, high density cholesterol (HDL), and triglycerides (TG). sCD40L and leptin showed the strongest correlation to WC (r=0.42, p=0.02; r=0.56, p<0.01, respectively) relative to other metabolic syndrome components [glucose (r=0.33, p=0.04), HDL (r=0.30, p>0.05), TG (r=0.29, NS), systolic BP (r=0.18, NS) and diastolic BP (r=0.13, NS)]. Correlations between sCD40L and WC in this young cohort were higher than previously reported in White adults (r=0.24, p<0.01) (Unek et al., 2008). These findings suggest the potential utility of sCD40L as an early biomarker of obesity‐associated metabolic disease in healthy young Black populations.Support: DC‐Baltimore Child Health Disparities Research (2P20MD000198‐06) and the National Center for Research Resources (M01RR020359 & UL1RR031988)