Cardiometabolic Associations between Physical Activity, Adiposity, and Lipoprotein Subclasses in Prepubertal Norwegian Children.

Tarja Rajalahti,Eivind Aadland,Sigmund Alfred Anderssen,Geir Kåre Resaland,Olav Martin Kvalheim

doi:10.3390/nu13062095

Abstract

Lipoprotein subclasses possess crucial cardiometabolic information. Due to strong multicollinearity among variables, little is known about the strength of influence of physical activity (PA) and adiposity upon this cardiometabolic pattern. Using a novel approach to adjust for covariates, we aimed at determining the “net” patterns and strength for PA and adiposity to the lipoprotein profile. Principal component and multivariate pattern analysis were used for the analysis of 841 prepubertal children characterized by 26 lipoprotein features determined by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a high-resolution PA descriptor derived from accelerometry, and three adiposity measures: body mass index, waist circumference to height, and skinfold thickness. Our approach focuses on revealing and validating the underlying predictive association patterns in the metabolic, anthropologic, and PA data to acknowledge the inherent multicollinear nature of such data. PA associates to a favorable cardiometabolic pattern of increased high-density lipoproteins (HDL), very large and large HDL particles, and large size of HDL particles, and decreasedtriglyceride, chylomicrons, very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL), and their subclasses, and to low size of VLDL particles. Although weakened in strength, this pattern resists adjustment for adiposity. Adiposity is inversely associated to this pattern and exhibits unfavorable associations to low-density lipoprotein (LDL) features, including atherogenic small and very small LDL particles. The observed associations are still strong after adjustment for PA. Thus, lipoproteins explain 26.0% in adiposity after adjustment for PA compared to 2.3% in PA after adjustment for adiposity.

Highlights

Lipoproteins can be quantified at subclass levels by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [1] or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy [2]
Our primary aim with the present paper is to reveal “net” predictive subclass lipoprotein association patterns to adiposity and physical activity (PA) in children and quantify the relative strength of association of the lipoproteins to adiposity and PA. We examine these associations in children since, despite the growing body of evidence for the connection between these factors early in life to cardiometabolic health later in life [21,22], few studies are available for associations of PA and adiposity to lipoprotein subclass patterns in children
Okuma et al [25] studied associations between abdominal adiposity and high-density lipoproteins (HDL) subclasses, while we previously investigated the associations of lipoproteins and body mass index (BMI) to aerobic fitness in a small cohort of children [26]

Summary

Introduction

Lipoprotein subclass patterns, obesity, and physical activity are associated to metabolic health. Lipoproteins can be quantified at subclass levels by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [1] or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy [2]. The association of the subclass lipoprotein profile to cardiovascular health in adults is well established [3,4,5,6]. A healthy profile is characterized by high concentrations of high-density lipoproteins (HDL)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion