Abstract
BackgroundFew data have been published on the associations of ferritin with trunk and leg fat depots. We aimed to investigate these associations in a Chinese population.MethodologyTrunk fat mass and leg fat mass were determined in a cross-sectional sample of 1,150 Chinese (479 men and 671 women) aged 50–70 years by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan. Fasting plasma ferritin was measured.Principal FindingsPlasma ferritin was positively correlated with waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, total body fat and trunk fat mass, but inversely correlated with leg fat mass in men (r = 0.16, 0.26, 0.19, 0.22 and −0.12, respectively, all P<0.05) and women (r = 0.16, 0.16, 0.08, 0.17 and −0.12, respectively, all P<0.05). Multivariate regression analysis showed that ferritin levels increased with larger trunk fat mass (β = 0.33 ± 0.08 for men and β = 0.21 ± 0.05 for women, both P<0.001) while decreased with larger leg fat mass (β = −0.12 ± 0.09, P = 0.15 for men; and β = −0.14 ± 0.05, P = 0.005 for women). Moreover, plasma ferritin levels decreased with increasing tertile of leg fat mass among each tertile of trunk fat mass.ConclusionThis is the first study to report the opposite associations of trunk and leg fat depots with plasma ferritin levels.
Highlights
Elevation of circulating ferritin concentrations, reflecting body iron overload, has been well established to be associated with diabetes and its risk factors such as obesity, metabolic syndrome and chronic inflammation [1,2,3,4,5]
Plasma ferritin levels decreased with increasing tertile of leg fat mass among each tertile of trunk fat mass. This is the first study to report the opposite associations of trunk and leg fat depots with plasma ferritin levels
In Spearman correlation analyses, we found that plasma ferritin was positively correlated with waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, total body fat mass and trunk fat mass, while inversely correlated with leg fat mass in both men (r = 0.16, 0.26, 0.19, 0.22 and 20.12, respectively, all P,0.05) and women (r = 0.16, 0.16, 0.08, 0.17 and 20.12, respectively, all P,0.05) after adjusted for age and residence (Table 2)
Summary
Elevation of circulating ferritin concentrations, reflecting body iron overload, has been well established to be associated with diabetes and its risk factors such as obesity, metabolic syndrome and chronic inflammation [1,2,3,4,5]. Until now, few data have been published on the association between ferritin and regional fat distribution, leg fat depot, evaluated by whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan. We aimed to investigate the association of plasma ferritin concentrations with trunk and leg fat accumulation measured by DXA in 479 men and 671 women aged 50–70 years in shanghai, China. Few data have been published on the associations of ferritin with trunk and leg fat depots. We aimed to investigate these associations in a Chinese population
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