Anthropometric measures, predicted visceral adipose tissue and biomarkers of chronic inflammation

Abstract

Background: Evidence has linked low-grade systemic inflammation and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) with development of chronic conditions. Cytokines and select proteins released by VAT may promote a low-grade inflammatory response. A number of equations have been developed to estimate VAT levels. In this study, we compared predicted VAT equation relationships with biomarkers of inflammation.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 2038 men and women aged 46-73 years. Correlation and linear regression analyses were performed to examine inflammatory biomarker relationships with four commonly assessed anthropometric measures and 10 predicted VAT equations.

Results: Compared with anthropometric measures, predicted VAT equations were found to explain a greater proportion of variance in CRP (R² = .075, p = .001), IL-6 (R² = .060, p = .001), TNF-α (R² = .017, p = .005), resistin (R² = .011, p = .012), monocyte (R² = .027, p = .001), eosinophil (R² = .012, p = .01) and basophil (R² = .015, p = .002) levels in males, and a greater variance in concentrations of C3 (R² = .175, p = .001), IL-6 (R² = .090, p = .001), TNF-α (R² = .036, p = .001), adiponectin (R² = .121, p = .001), the adiponectin-to-leptin ratio (R² = .444, p = .001), resistin (R² = .025, p = .001), white blood cell count (R² = .057, p = .001), neutrophils (R² = .061, p = .001) and lymphocytes (R² = .020, p = .001) in females.

Conclusion: Equations for assessing VAT levels might be useful to characterise metabolic health. Further studies that examine predicted VAT relationships with disease and mortality outcomes are warranted.

Keywords: adipose; anthropometric; indices; inflammation; tissue; visceral.