Abstract
Background: Galectin-3 is a member of the family of soluble beta-galactoside binding lectins, which is involved in inflammation, cell differentiation, adhesion, proliferation, angiogenesis and cancer cell invasion. Increased galectin-3 levels in obese patients have been shown in previous studies. In our study; we aimed to investigate the galectin-3 levels in obese adolescents for the first time in the literature.
 Materials and methods: A total of 85 adolescent patients who were admitted to our pediatrics outpatient clinic between December 19th of 2018 and January 31st of 2019 were included in our study. Among those patients 52 were obese and 33 were normal-weighted. Adolescents having body mass index (BMI) 95% percentile and above according to their age and sex were defined as obese. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay kit was used for the measurement of galectin-3 in serum. Laboratory tests (Galectin-3, HbA1c, glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR), sex, age and BMI were statistically compared between groups.
 Results: We found no statistically significant difference in terms of gender distribution rates, age, glucose or galectin-3 levels among obese adolescent and healthy control groups (p> 0.05). The BMI, HbA1c, HOMA-IR and insulin levels of the obese adolescent group were found to be significantly higher than the healthy control group (p <0.05). We found no statistically significant correlation between galectin-3 levels and other parameters in obese adolescent group (p> 0.05).
 Conclusion: In our study, we did not find any relationship between serum galectin-3 levels and obesity in adolescents. We believe that the effects of galectin-3 levels on obesity in adolescents should be more clearly explained by further investigations, which also measures other biomarkers of the mechanism of action.
 Keywords: Galectin-3, obesity, adolescent
 List of abbreviations: BMI: Body-Mass Index, CV: Variation coefficient, ELISA: Enzyme linked immunoassay, HOMA-IR: Homeostatic model of assessment-insulin resistance, IL: Interleukin, r: Correlation coefficient, SD: Standard deviation.
Highlights
Background: Galectin-3 is a member of the family of soluble beta-galactoside binding lectins, which is involved in inflammation, cell differentiation, adhesion, proliferation, angiogenesis and cancer cell invasion
We found no statistically significant difference in terms of gender distribution rates, age, glucose or galectin-3 levels among obese adolescent and healthy control groups (p> 0.05)
The body mass index (BMI), Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), HOMA-IR and insulin levels of the obese adolescent group were found to be significantly higher than the healthy control group (p
Summary
Galectin-3 is a member of the family of soluble beta-galactoside binding lectins, which is involved in inflammation, cell differentiation, adhesion, proliferation, angiogenesis and cancer cell invasion [1]. Some studies have reported that galectin-3 plays a protective role in obesity-related metabolic complications and inflammation [8, 9]. Materials and methods: A total of 85 adolescent patients who were admitted to our pediatrics outpatient clinic between December 19th of 2018 and January 31st of 2019 were included in our study Among those patients 52 were obese and 33 were normal-weighted. Laboratory tests (Galectin-3, HbA1c, glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR), sex, age and BMI were statistically compared between groups. Results: We found no statistically significant difference in terms of gender distribution rates, age, glucose or galectin-3 levels among obese adolescent and healthy control groups (p> 0.05). We believe that the effects of galectin-3 levels on obesity in adolescents should be more clearly explained by further investigations, which measures other biomarkers of the mechanism of action
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