Asymmetric Dimethylarginine (ADMA) is Tightly Correlated with Growth in Juveniles without Correlations to Obesity Related Disorders

Background: Asymmetrical dimethylarginine (ADMA) was found to be increased in conditions associated with atherosclerosis and metabolic disorders. We investigated ADMA in obese juveniles with pre-atherosclerotic symptoms and in normal weight juveniles. Design: To elucidate correlations of ADMA in juveniles with obesity related disorders such as insulin resistance, low grade inflammation, hypertension and pre-atherosclerosis, we analysed ADMA by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in 68 obese and 68 healthy, age and gender matched juveniles. Results: ADMA levels are slightly, but significantly increased (p = 0.04) in obese (0.78 +/- 0.01 mu mol/l), compared to normal weight juveniles (0.74 +/- 0.01 mu mol/l). There are no robust correlations of ADMA with obesity related disorders, like dyslipidemia, hypertension, low-grade inflammation and pre-atherosclerosis. Age, body length and alkaline phosphatase, as markers of growth are correlated with ADMA. Multiple testing revealed that, alkaline phosphatase turned out as highly significant positively correlated with ADMA in normal weight (r = 0.45/p<0.0001) and obese (r = 0.59/p<0.0001) children. Conclusions: We show here, that ADMA is slightly increased in obese juveniles without any robust correlations to obesity related disorders. ADMA is tightly correlated with alkaline phosphatase as a marker of growth in obese and normal weight, healthy juveniles.