The mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of obesity-related atherosclerosis remain to be clarified. To investigate the preclinical phase, interleukin-6 (IL-6) plasma levels were analyzed together with clinical, anthropometric, inflammatory, and metabolic variables in a well-defined cohort of 677 young and middle-aged overweight/obese and normal-weight subjects. In the juvenile and adult overweight/obese study group, IL-6 levels were increased significantly compared with normal-weight, age-matched controls (P < 0.001). In both juveniles and adults, higher levels of IL-6 were observed in obese compared with overweight participants. Subjects with metabolic syndrome (MS) had significantly higher IL-6 levels than those without MS. In juveniles, leptin, and in adults, the waist-to-height ratio, turned out to be the best predictor of IL-6 plasma levels in a multiple stepwise regression model. Taken together, in every age group, interleukin-6 is associated positively with the grade of overweight. Interestingly, leptin, which is the best known adipokine, is associated predictively with interleukin-6 plasma levels only in juveniles, which may indicate an important role of this molecule in the initiation of obesity-related inflammation.
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