Markers of Cardiovascular Risk and Metabolism Assessed on Multiple Baseline Occasions and in Response to a Single Fatty Meal in Healthy Young Adults

Abstract

The possible etiological role of C-reactive protein (CRP) has become a focus of cardiovascular and metabolic disease research. Very little is known regarding the cardiovascular and metabolic disease biomarker data in young healthy individuals, and the relationship between these and the postprandial metabolic responses has not been systematically studied. We determined the hsCRP, triglyceride (TAG), cholesterol, glucose, and insulin baseline values in 20 healthy young subjects (ten males, ten females, 22–29 years old) on four distinct occasions each approximately 1 week apart and assessed physical activity score and BMI. There was greater intra-subject variability for hsCRP (18 % of total) than for components of the blood lipid profile (2–4 %). Baseline hsCRP level was directly related to fasting TAG level (P < 0.001), and BMI (P = 0.011), and inversely to physical activity score (P = 0.002), although there were some sex-dependent effects. In response to a high fat meal (~800 total kcal, ~430 fat kcal from margarine), the acute (up to 6 h postprandial) elevation in serum TAG was directly related to the baseline hsCRP level (P = 0.026), while the insulin response was directly related to the BMI (P = 0.01). Thus, a potential relationship has been demonstrated between hsCRP and TAG levels both at baseline and in response to an acute fatty meal in young healthy individuals. It remains to be substantiated whether the scaling of hsCRP with an exaggerated TAG response to a meal challenge contributes to future development of insulin resistance and metabolic and cardiovascular disease.