Abstract
The association between obesity and higher non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) levels has been established in adults. In contrast, lower NEFA levels have been described in children with obesity although the reason behind this association remains unclear. Leptin, which regulates body weight and plays a role in lipolysis, could be involved in this relationship. We evaluated the influence of leptin in the association between obesity and NEFA concentrations in children, analyzing two cohorts including 684 6- to 8-year-olds and 836 12- to 16-year-old children, respectively. After adjusting by leptin, insulin levels remained significantly higher in adolescents with obesity as compared with levels in those without obesity. However, insulin levels showed no differences between prepubertal children with and without obesity. The significantly lower NEFA concentrations observed in 6- to 8-year-old girls with obesity disappeared when comparing NEFA levels between girls with and without obesity after adjusting by leptin. We report an influence of leptin levels on the association between obesity and insulin and NEFA in young children that is not observed in adolescents. Our findings add information about factors that may contribute to explain the lower NEFA levels described in prepubertal children with obesity.
Highlights
The significant worldwide increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity has been associated with a rise in metabolic complications and in the prevalence of type II diabetes in children [1]
When comparing mean insulin concentrations between children with and without obesity by sex in 6- to 8-yearolds, non-adjusted and adjusted by leptin, (Figure 1A), we observe that the significant differences observed in both sexes disappear after adjusting by leptin levels
When comparing non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) by weight category in 6- to 8year-olds (Figure 1C), we observed significantly lower NEFA concentrations in females with obesity than in females without obesity, but observed no significant differences in NEFA levels by weight category after adjusting by leptin
Summary
The significant worldwide increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity has been associated with a rise in metabolic complications and in the prevalence of type II diabetes in children [1]. Even though obesity in children has been associated to increased NEFA levels in some studies [4, 5], others have failed to find any differences on NEFA by weight category [6] or have described lower NEFA levels in children with obesity [7, 8]. In a previous study of our group in prepubertal children, NEFA levels were significantly lower in girls with obesity than in girls without obesity [9]. No differences in NEFA concentrations by weight category were found analyzing adolescents [10]. It seems that the association may depend on age and sex, the reasons for these different findings remain unknown
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