Abstract
Introduction. Obesity during adolescence is an increasing problem for both the individual and health care systems alike. In Western world countries, childhood adiposity has reached epidemic proportions. It is known that elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines can be found in the plasma of obese patients. In this study, we sought to determine the relation between IL-12p40, IL-12p70, and Interleukin-16 (IL-16) in overweight adolescents. Materials and Methods. Seventy-nine male Caucasian adolescents aged 13–17 years were included in this study. Thirty-seven of them had a body mass index (BMI) above the 90th age-specific percentile. Il-12p40, IL-12p70, and IL-16 were measured from plasma using Luminex multiplex technology. Results. Both IL-12p40 and IL-16 concentrations were significantly increased in overweight subjects compared to normal weight controls (IL-12p40: 1086.6 pg/mL ± 31.7 pg/mL SEM versus 1228.6 pg/mL ± 43.5 pg/mL SEM; IL-16 494.0 pg/mL ± 29.4 pg/mL SEM versus 686.6 pg/mL ± 52.5 pg/mL SEM, P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, resp.). No differences were found for IL-12p70. Conclusions. Based on these results, we believe that the increased levels of IL-12p40 and IL-16 are associated with an ongoing inflammatory response in obese individuals and could lead to the development of disease conditions related to obesity.
Highlights
Obesity during adolescence is an increasing problem for both the individual and health care systems alike
IL-12p40 was found at a concentration of 1086.6 pg/mL (±31.7 pg/mL standard error of the mean (SEM))
As previous studies showed that IL-12p40 leads to increased secretion of IL-16 [17] which in turn further induced the release of many proinflammatory cytokines such as TNFalpha and IL-6 from mononuclear cells, we believed that the regulatory mechanism between IL-12 and IL-16 signaling could be of greater importance in adipose children and adults
Summary
Obesity during adolescence is an increasing problem for both the individual and health care systems alike. In Western world countries, childhood adiposity has reached epidemic proportions. Based on these results, we believe that the increased levels of IL-12p40 and IL-16 are associated with an ongoing inflammatory response in obese individuals and could lead to the development of disease conditions related to obesity. The development of obesity in children and adolescents has reached almost epidemic proportions in industrialized countries of the Western world since 1980. Adolescent adiposity is closely related to persistent obesity in adult patients [2]. A plethora of studies has shown that higher body mass index (BMI) or other measures of obesity in children and adolescents are associated with adverse alterations of lipoprotein ratio, hypertension, insulin resistance, and diabetes [3, 4]. Obesity impairs the outcome in many chronic autoimmune diseases such as asthma
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