ESPE Abstracts

Background: Recent studies have suggested a role of IGF1 as a candidate prognostic marker for cardiometabolic complications of obesity.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between IGF1 serum levels and both biochemical and metabolic parameters as well as body composition in a cohort of obese children.

Methods: obese subjects (130F/157M), aged 11.2±2.7 years, were studied. Anthropometry, biochemical and metabolic parameters, and IGF1 serum levels (expressed as SDS) were assessed. Body composition was evaluated by dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in 201 children. IGF1 levels were subdivided in ascending tertiles. Differences between tertile groups were assessed by Mann–Whitney U-test.

Results: IGF1 levels were inversely related to waist circumference (WC)/height ratio (r=−0.35, P<0.001), BMI SDS (r=−1.31, P=0.03), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels (r=−0.231, P=0.001), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels (r=−0.257, P<0.001), fat mass percentage (r=−0.281, P<0.001), and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels (r=−0.222, P=0.009) and directly related with height SDS (r=0.125, P=0.035), lean mass percentage (r=0.273, P=0.041), total lean mass (r=0.145, P=0.041), and trunk lean mass (r=0.159, P=0.024). Stepwise regression analysis revealed that IGF1 was the major predictor of both fat mass percentage (β=−0.3, P<0.001) and lean mass percentage (β=0.28, P<0.001). Compared to subjects with IGF1 levels in the highest tertile, patients with in the lowest tertile showed higher WC/height ratio (0.6±0.051 vs 0.65±0.058, P=0.012), fat mass percentage (38.98±4.93 vs 42.81±4.03, P=0.001), CRP levels (0.3±0.29 vs 0.55±0.43, P=0.033), LDL cholesterol levels (88.06±19.57 vs 96.93±23.88, P=0.042), AST levels (23±7.15 vs 33.63±19.67, P=0.002), and ALT levels (25.14±17.83 vs 33.02±20.67, P=0.037) while lean mass percentage resulted lower (55.01±3.9 vs 58.58±4.85, P=0.002).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that IGF1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of obesity related cardiometabolic alterations and could represent a biomarker of risk in obese children.