Relationship between iron status markers and insulin resistance: an exploratory study in subjects with excess body weight

M Pilar Vaquero; Daniel Martínez-Maqueda; Angélica Gallego-Narbón; Belén Zapatera; Jara Pérez-Jiménez

doi:10.7717/peerj.9528

Relationship between iron status markers and insulin resistance: an exploratory study in subjects with excess body weight

PeerJ. 2020 Jul 31:8:e9528. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9528. eCollection 2020.

Authors

M Pilar Vaquero¹, Daniel Martínez-Maqueda^{1

2}, Angélica Gallego-Narbón^{1

3}, Belén Zapatera¹, Jara Pérez-Jiménez¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Metabolism and Nutrition, Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN-CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
² Madrid Institute for Rural, Agricultural and Food Research and Development (IMIDRA), Madrid, Spain.
³ Department of Biology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain, España.

Abstract

Background: Controversy exists on the relationship between iron metabolism and cardiometabolic risk. The aim of this study was to determine if there is a link between dysmetabolic iron and cardiometabolic markers in subjects with excess body weight.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with fifty participants presenting overweight or obesity and at least another metabolic syndrome factor. Determinations: anthropometry, body composition, blood pressure, lipids, glucose, insulin, leptin, areas under the curve (AUC) for glucose and insulin after an oral glucose tolerance test, hs-C reactive protein (hs-CRP), blood count, ferritin, transferrin, transferrin saturation (TSAT), soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR). Gender-adjusted linear correlations and two independent samples t tests were used.

Results: Ferritin was positively correlated with insulin-AUC (r = 0.547, p = 0.008) and TSAT was negatively correlated with waist-hip ratio (r = - 0.385, p = 0.008), insulin (r = - 0.551, p < 0.001), and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR, r = - 0.586, p < 0.001). Subjects with TSAT ≤ 20% had higher insulin (p = 0.012) and HOMA-IR (p = 0.003) compared to those with TSAT > 20%. In conclusion, the observed results suggest that iron transport and storage are altered in subjects with overweight/obesity, at the same time that they exhibit the characteristic features of insulin resistance. Nevertheless, this occurs without iron overload or deficiency. These results should be validated in wider cohorts since they suggest that iron transport and storage should be assessed when performing the clinical evaluation of subjects with excess body weight.

Keywords: Ferritin; Insulin resistance; Iron; Obesity; Tranferrin.

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINNECO-FEDER, grant: AGL2014 55102-JIN). Angélica Gallego-Narbón was funded by the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) from the European Social Fund (ESF). Support for the publication fee was provided by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.