ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Obesity is considered one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide which is associated with chronic, low-grade, sterile inflammation. It leads to variable changes in metabolic and hormonal homeostasis. The aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of obesity associated chronic inflammation on peripheral complete blood count alterations.

Material and Methods: 27 overweight/obese and 15 normal-weight children aged 8–18 years were enrolled in the study. The analysis included anthropometric measurements, CBC parameters, biochemical parameters. Inflammation was evaluated by CRP concentration and Th17 cells’ frequency. Th17 cells were identified by flow cytometry and defined as CD3+CD4+CD196+IL-17Aic+. Obesity was defined by BMI >+2 SDS, and overweight was defined as BMI between +1 to +1.9 SDS.

Results: The overweight and obese group had significantly higher leukocyte (P= 0.04), lymphocyte (P= 0.03), monocyte (P= 0.02) and erythrocyte counts (p < 0.001), haemoglobin concentration (P= 0.005) and frequency of Th17 cells (P= 0.048). We detected significant relationships between anthropometric parameters, and CRP concentration, Th17 cells frequency and CBC parameters. The Th17 cell’ frequency correlated positively with erythrocyte value (P= 0.01, r= 0.38). Additionally, in the overweight/obese group the erythrocyte correlated positively with CRP (P= 0.02, r= 0.44). Moreover, in all children the correlation was found between erythrocyte and: fasting insulin (P= 0.00005, r= 0.58), HOMA-IR (P= 0.00005, r= 0.58), QUICKI (P= 0.000042, r= -0.59), as well as between haemoglobin and: fasting insulin (P= 0.037, r= 0.32), HOMA-IR (p =0.37, r= 0.32), QUICKI (P= 0.049, r= -0.31). In the overweight/obese children the significant correlation was found between glucose 2 h after OGTT and HGB (P= 0.018, r= 0.45) and insulin 2 h after OGTT and erythrocyte (P= 0.04, r= 0.4), and HGB (P= 0.04, r= 0.44), also Matsuda Index with erythrocyte (P= 0.01, r= 0.48).

Conclusions: Obesity change CBC picture in white and red blood cell lineages. The finding of significant relationships between proinflammatory Th17 lymphocytes, CRP, and CBC as well as metabolic parameters may indicate that both obesity-induced inflammation and insulin resistance markers can influence on peripheral blood morphology in obese children. Our results suggest that obesity-induced carbohydrate complications primarily affect red blood cell lineage.