Association of proinflammatory genes expression with serum interleukin 1β and free fatty acids in metabolically healthy and unhealthy abdominally obese individuals: a case-control study

BackgroundProinflammatory genes are highly expressed in several metabolic disorders associated with obesity. But it is not clarified whether gene expression levels and downstream inflammatory markers are related to the metabolic state or the presence of obesity. Hence, the present study aimed to compare Toll-Like Receptor 2 (TLR2), Myeloid Differentiation Factor 88 (MyD88), and NF?B mRNA expression levels between metabolically healthy abdominally obese (MHAO) and metabolically unhealthy abdominally obese (MUAO) individuals.ResultsWe compared mRNA expression levels of the genes as well as serum FFAs and IL-1 beta in MUAO (n=36) and MHAO (n=34) groups. Serum FBS, TG, and HDL-C in addition to systolic and diastolic blood pressure were significantly higher in MUAO than MHAO groups (p<0.05). The odds of MUAO was significantly decreased with high HDL-C (OR=0.22, 95%CI: 0.08-0.63) and increased with high FBS (OR=7.04, 95%CI: 1.42-34.69) and TG (OR=30.55, 95%CI: 7.48-60.67). There were no significant differences in proinflammatory genes as well as serum FFAs and IL-1 beta between the two groups. No associations were found between the genes expression and serum markers. However, NF?B expression was significantly correlated with TLR2 and MyD88 (r=0.747; p<0.001). Significant correlations were also noticed between TLR2 and MyD88 expression as well as between serum FFAs and IL-1 beta in each group (p<0.001).ConclusionSerum concentration of IL-1 beta, FFAs, and mRNA expression levels of TLR2, MyD88, and NF?B may be resulted from abdominal obesity and not be related to the presence or absence of metabolic health.