Association of resistin and hs-CRP with liver enzymes and components of the metabolic syndrome in Iranian adolescents with excess weight: the CASPIAN-III Study

Backgroun & Objectives: High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and the adipokine resistin are suggested as predictive factors for chronic diseases; however their association with liver enzymes and cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight children remain to be determined. This study aimed to determine the association of resistin and hs-CRP with liver enzymes and cardiometabolic risk factors in a nationally-representative sample of Iranian obese children and adolescents. Methodology: This cross-sectional multi-center study was performed on 100 overweight and or obese adolescents. It was performed as a sub-study of a nationwide survey entitled CASPIAN-III Study, conducted among 5570 students living in 27 provinces in Iran. Participants were randomly selected from students with age-and gender-specific body mass index (BMI) of >+ 1 z-score. Results: Data from 96 participants (49 boys) were complete and are included in the statistical analysis. The mean (SD) age of participants was 15.01 (2.4) years. Resistin had significant correlations with indexes of generalized and abdominal obesity, as well as with serum alanine aminotransaminase, aspartate aminotransaminase, fasting blood glucose, and triglycerides. It had inverse association with serum HDL-C concentration, and marginally significant correlations with total-and LDL-cholesterol. Hs-CRP had significant correlation with indexes of abdominal obesity, inverse marginal association with HDL-C, and marginally significant association with BMI and triglycerides. Multiple regression analysis, adjusted for age and gender, revealed nearly similar associations. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that resistin seems to have a contributory role in childhood obesity and its metabolic consequences as fatty liver and metabolic syndrome. The common significant association of resistin and hs-CRP with other variables was mainly their correlation with abdominal obesity. Further studies should be considered for the underlying pathophysiological process of resistin, as well as for the clinical implications of the current findings.