Obesity already causes non-communicable diseases during childhood, but the mechanisms of disease development are insufficiently understood. Myokines such as myostatin and irisin are muscle-derived factors possibly involved in obesity-associated diseases. This explorative study aims to investigate whether myostatin and irisin are associated with metabolic parameters, including the vitamin D status in pediatric patients with severe obesity. Clinical, anthropometric and laboratory data from 108 patients with severe obesity (>97th percentile) aged between 9 and 19 years were assessed. Myostatin, its antagonist follistatin, and irisin, were measured from plasma by ELISA. Myostatin concentrations, particularly in males, positively correlated with age and pubertal stage, as well as metabolic parameters such as insulin resistance. Irisin concentrations correlated positively with HDL and negatively with LDL cholesterol values. For follistatin, the associations with age and pubertal stage were inverse. Strikingly, a negative correlation of myostatin with serum vitamin D levels was observed that remained significant after adjusting for age and pubertal stage. In conclusion, there is an independent association of low vitamin D and elevated myostatin levels. Further research may focus on investigating means to prevent increased myostatin levels in interventional studies, which might open several venues to putative options to treat and prevent obesity-associated diseases.
Keywords: children; follistatin; irisin; metabolism; myokines.