Role of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 and interleukin-6 as systemic regulators of overweight and obesity in children

Abstract EN

Background : there is increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity among children nowadays.

this is associated with increased evidence that obesity is characterized by low-grade inflammation indicated by the increase release of in-flammatory adipokines.

these adipokines are related directly to the occurrence of the obesity complications.

aim : the aim was to detect the levels of IL-1 and IL-6 as pro-inflammatory cytokines in obese and overweight children and to assess its association with the levels of blood pressure and lipid profile.

subjects & methods : this case control study was conducted on 90 patients who were divided equally into 3 groups (30 obese, 30 overweight and 30 control).

all subjects were subjected to full dietetic history, general examination in-cluding measuring blood pressure, full anthropometry including weight, height, waist circumference, skin fold thickness and BMI was calculated and laboratory investigations including Serum glucose-Triglyceride (TG)-Low density lipopro-tein (LDL)- High density lipoprotein (HDL)-Cholesterol-Glycosylated Hemo-globin (HbA1c)-Interleukin-1 and Interleukin-6.

results : the study was conducted on a wide age group ranging from 2.3 to 15 years, with no statistically significance difference between the 3 groups as regards age distribution.

54 (60%) were males and 36 (40%) were females with no signifi-cant difference between the groups as regard sex distribution.

caloric intake and frequency of eating junk food were statistically significantly higher among obese group, while vegetables intake was significantly higher in the control group.

mean blood pressure and pallor were also significantly higher in the obese group followed by the overweight group then the control.

as for laboratory results, there was statistically significant higher mean value of random glucose, HbA1c ,LDL level, serum triglycerides and serum cholesterol and lower HDL level in obese group.

conclusion : obese and overweight children have high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are closely related with serum lipid level and HbA1c.