Indices of metal proteins (transferrin, ceruloplasmin) in overweight and obese children

摘要

Introduction. A progressive increase of obesity prevalence, both among adults and children, is observed in many countries. Today, obesity is seen as a chronic systemic inflammation with low activity. Currently, new data are available about the biological and clinical significance of metal proteins in the inflammatory processes. The objective was to study the transferrin and ceruloplasmin indices in overweight and obese children. Material and methods. We have examined children with excess body weight (EBW, 30 children), obesity (40 children) and 30 healthy children aged 13-18 years. The evaluation included history, anthropometric data (height, body weight, body mass index, waist-to-thigh ratio – WTR), serum glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR calculation, transferrin (TF) and ceruloplasmin (CP). For statistical analysis of the results, statistic modules of Statistica v.6.0, MedStat and on-line SISA calculator were used. Results. In a total sample of 325 children, excess body weight was observed in 75 (23.1%) cases and obesity in 68 (13.6%) children. Boys prevailed, with 40 (53.3%) cases of EBW among those and 38 (55.8%) with obesity. The content of TF and CP in children aged 16-18 years was higher (28.1±0.8 mg/dL and 3.90±0.70 g/L, n = 22, p 0.05) than in children aged 13-15 years. The highest TF level (3.98±0.9 g/L, n = 16) and CP level (28.9±0.8 mg/dL, n = 16) were recorded in children with grade II obesity. There was no apparent difference either in the gender indices of TF and CP, nor in obese children combined with insulin resistance or obesity without insulin resistance. Less obvious changes in TF and CP were found in children with EBW. The weak relationships between the increase in BMI in children and the CP and TF (r = 0.28; p 0.001) level in the blood plasma of obese children (r = 0.23; p 0.0001) were detected, though they are highly statistically significant. Conclusions . Early identification of children with EBW and monitoring of their health, including the assessment of systemic inflammation markers, is an up-to-date and promising area for optimizing the obesity prophylaxis.