Inflammatory markers are elevated in overweight Mexican-American children

Objective. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of body weight on blood lipid profile, insulin resistance and inflammatory biomarkers in Mexican-American children. Methods. Children (13.3 +/- 0.1 year) were recruited from a local school and assigned to one of three groups as a volunteer sample: healthy weight (HW) (>= 10(th) and < 85(th) BMI percentile; n=42), at risk of overweight (RO) (>= 85(th) and < 95(th); n=25) or overweight (OW) (>= 95(th); n=42). Plasma concentrations of hsCRP, sCD14, sIL-6R, sTNF-alpha R1, sTNF-alpha R2, IL-6 and TNF-alpha were determined by ELISA. Results. OW children had significantly greater plasma concentrations of hsCRP (P=0.003), sCD14 (P =0.013), sIL-6R (P=0.010), sTNF-alpha R1 (P < 0.001), sTNF-alpha R2 (P=0.005), insulin (P=0.001), TC:HDL ratio (P < 0.001) and triglycerides (P < 0.001) than HW children. Also plasma concentrations of hsCRP sIL-6R and sTNF-alpha R1 were significantly greater in OW compared with RO children. Conclusion. Overweight Mexican-American children had a higher concentration of inflammatory biomarkers than healthy weight children. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report that sCD14 is elevated in overweight compared with healthy weight Mexican-American children.