Associations of leptin, insulin and lipids with retinal microvasculature in children and adolescents
-
Carola J.C. van Aart
,
Nathalie Michels
Abstract
Background:
We investigated whether cardiometabolic risk factors measured in serum (total cholesterol [TC], high-density lipoprotein [HDL], triglyceride, leptin, insulin, glucose and insulin resistance) are associated with the retinal microvasculature, a marker of cardiovascular aging, in healthy children and adolescents. Moreover, we tested whether these associations are due to direct biological effects or more indirectly due to adiposity-related side effects.
Methods:
We recruited 168 healthy Flemish children (7–16 years old, 54.8% boys). Blood samples and retinal photographs were taken during clinical examinations. Arteriolar and venular vessel calibers were calculated using a semi-automated computer program. Multivariable regression models were used and adjusted for age, sex, mean arterial pressure (MAP) and alternate retinal caliber. In a second step, we adjusted for body mass index z-score (zBMI).
Results:
Only continuous serum leptin was associated with retinal parameters, i.e. wider arterioles; however, this disappeared after adjustment for zBMI. Children with high cardiometabolic risk factors (>90th percentile for serum leptin, insulin and insulin resistance) had wider arterioles compared to children with lower concentrations, even after additional adjustment for zBMI. No significant associations were found with lipids.
Conclusions:
In this healthy population of children and adolescents, the hormones insulin and leptin and insulin resistance were associated with retinal microvasculature alterations, mainly in children with high cardiometabolic factors (>90th percentile), while lipids were not. These associations were independent of zBMI.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all children and their parents for their voluntary participation. We acknowledge the Bimetra biobank UGent for sample storage.
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: This work was supported by the Research Foundation – Flanders, Belgium (funder id: 10.13039/501100003130, project number G073315N).
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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Supplemental Material:
The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/jpem-2017-0374).
©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Review
- The role of corticosteroid-binding globulin in the evaluation of adrenal insufficiency
- Original Articles
- Association of sodium intake with insulin resistance in Korean children and adolescents: the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010
- Decrease in serum chemerin through aerobic exercise plus dieting and its association with mitigation of cardio-metabolic risk in obese female adolescents
- Ultrasonographic assessment of pubertal breast development in obese children: compliance with the clinic
- Associations of leptin, insulin and lipids with retinal microvasculature in children and adolescents
- Association of cord blood ghrelin, leptin and insulin concentrations in term newborns with anthropometric parameters at birth
- Management of thyrotoxicosis in children and adolescents: 35 years’ experience in 304 patients
- Clinical and cytogenetic features of 516 patients with suspected Turner syndrome – a single-center experience
- Response to growth hormone treatment in very young patients with growth hormone deficiencies and mini-puberty
- Reference centile curves for wrist circumference for Indian children aged 3–18 years
- Comparison between two inhibin B ELISA assays in 46,XY testicular disorders of sex development (DSD) with normal testosterone secretion
- Genetic mutations associated with neonatal diabetes mellitus in Omani patients
- Four novel mutations of the BCKDHA, BCKDHB and DBT genes in Iranian patients with maple syrup urine disease
- Improved medical-alert ID ownership and utilization in youth with congenital adrenal hyperplasia following a parent educational intervention
- Letter to the Editor
- Identification of five mutations in a patient with galactose metabolic disorders
- Case Reports
- Partial androgen insensitivity syndrome due to somatic mosaicism of the androgen receptor
- Vaginal bleeding and a giant ovarian cyst in an infant with 21-hydroxylase deficiency
- Insulin-mediated pseudoacromegaly: a report of two pediatric patients
- Novel compound heterozygous variants in the LHCGR gene identified in a subject with Leydig cell hypoplasia type 1
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Review
- The role of corticosteroid-binding globulin in the evaluation of adrenal insufficiency
- Original Articles
- Association of sodium intake with insulin resistance in Korean children and adolescents: the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2010
- Decrease in serum chemerin through aerobic exercise plus dieting and its association with mitigation of cardio-metabolic risk in obese female adolescents
- Ultrasonographic assessment of pubertal breast development in obese children: compliance with the clinic
- Associations of leptin, insulin and lipids with retinal microvasculature in children and adolescents
- Association of cord blood ghrelin, leptin and insulin concentrations in term newborns with anthropometric parameters at birth
- Management of thyrotoxicosis in children and adolescents: 35 years’ experience in 304 patients
- Clinical and cytogenetic features of 516 patients with suspected Turner syndrome – a single-center experience
- Response to growth hormone treatment in very young patients with growth hormone deficiencies and mini-puberty
- Reference centile curves for wrist circumference for Indian children aged 3–18 years
- Comparison between two inhibin B ELISA assays in 46,XY testicular disorders of sex development (DSD) with normal testosterone secretion
- Genetic mutations associated with neonatal diabetes mellitus in Omani patients
- Four novel mutations of the BCKDHA, BCKDHB and DBT genes in Iranian patients with maple syrup urine disease
- Improved medical-alert ID ownership and utilization in youth with congenital adrenal hyperplasia following a parent educational intervention
- Letter to the Editor
- Identification of five mutations in a patient with galactose metabolic disorders
- Case Reports
- Partial androgen insensitivity syndrome due to somatic mosaicism of the androgen receptor
- Vaginal bleeding and a giant ovarian cyst in an infant with 21-hydroxylase deficiency
- Insulin-mediated pseudoacromegaly: a report of two pediatric patients
- Novel compound heterozygous variants in the LHCGR gene identified in a subject with Leydig cell hypoplasia type 1
