Association of waist circumference, traditional cardiovascular risk factors, and stromal-derived factor-1 in adolescents

Background Overweight and the metabolic syndrome (MS) represent dramatically increasing problems in children and adolescents. Waist circumference (WC) is an important factor to determine MS. So far, WC is a predictor of blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), insulin concentration, and visceral fat in adolescents. We investigated whether WC and body mass index standard deviation score (BMI-SDS) are predictors of adiponectin, stromal-derived factor (SDF-1), and soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin) as parameters for beginning insulin resistance and endothelial damage. Methods Seventy-nine male Caucasian adolescents were studied, aged 13-17 yr. Thirty-eight (48%) of them had a WC above 90th age percentile. All participants were enrolled in one consultation, recording various parameters and collecting one blood sample. Results Differences in systolic blood pressure, HDL, high sensitive C-reactive protein, and hemoglobin A1c could be found between groups above or below the 90th WC percentile. Linear regression analysis revealed that WC and BMI-SDS predict traditional risk factors, as well as reduced adiponectin, lower SDF-1, and higher sE-selectin levels. Multiple linear regression analyses show that SDF-1 is in closest correlation to WC and BMI-SDS. Conclusions WC and BMI-SDS predict various alterations of traditional and new cardiovascular risk factors. SDF-1 might be a new marker for diagnosis of obesity-related diseases and help understand pathophysiologic mechanisms.