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The Peculiar Trialogue between Pediatric Obesity, Systemic Inflammatory Status, and Immunity
Lorena Elena Meliț1, Cristina Oana Mărginean1, Cristian Dan Mărginean1
1Department of Pediatrics I, George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș, Gheorghe Marinescu Street No 38, 540136 Târgu Mureș, Romania.
Insights
Pediatric obesity is a complex multisystem disorder, not just an energy imbalance. It triggers chronic inflammation and serious health complications in children, impacting their quality of life.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Endocrinology
- Immunology
- Metabolic Disorders
Background:
- Pediatric obesity is a growing global health crisis, characterized by an energetic imbalance leading to chronic inflammation.
- Obesity is increasingly recognized as a complex multisystem disorder with severe short- and long-term health consequences for children.
- Adipose tissue, far from being inert, functions as an endocrine and immune organ, releasing adipokines that modulate inflammatory responses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the systemic inflammatory nature of pediatric obesity.
- To emphasize the role of adipose tissue as an immune organ in the context of childhood obesity.
- To explore the potential of complete cellular blood count parameters as inflammatory predictors in pediatric obesity.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on pediatric obesity and its associated inflammatory mechanisms.
- Analysis of the immunological functions of adipose tissue, including adipokine signaling.
- Evaluation of the utility of complete cellular blood count parameters in identifying inflammation in pediatric patients with overweight or obesity.
Main Results:
- Obesity in children results in adipocyte hypertrophy/hyperplasia and chronic inflammation.
- Adipose tissue contains diverse immune cells (macrophages, neutrophils, lymphocytes, etc.) that contribute to inflammation.
- Adipokines amplify immune responses, and complete cellular blood count parameters (leukocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils) can predict obesity-related inflammation in children.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric obesity is a chronic inflammatory condition with multisystem implications.
- Adipose tissue plays a critical role in the immune dysregulation associated with childhood obesity.
- Complete cellular blood count parameters offer a potential tool for monitoring obesity-induced inflammation in pediatric populations.
Abstract:
Pediatric obesity is not only an energetic imbalance, but also a chronic complex multisystem disorder that might impair both the life length and quality. Its pandemic status should increase worldwide awareness regarding the long-term life-threatening associated complications. Obesity related complications, such as cardiovascular, metabolic, or hepatic ones, affect both short and long-term wellbeing, and they do not spare pediatric subjects, defined as life-threatening consequences of the systemic inflammatory status triggered by the adipose tissue. The energetic imbalance of obesity clearly results in adipocytes hypertrophy and hyperplasia expressing different degrees of chronic inflammation. Adipose tissue might be considered an immune organ due to its rich content in a complex array of immune cells, among which the formerly mentioned macrophages, neutrophils, mast cells, but also eosinophils along with T and B cells, acting together to maintain the tissue homeostasis in normal weight individuals. Adipokines belong to the class of innate immunity humoral effectors, and they play a crucial role in amplifying the immune responses with a subsequent trigger effect on leukocyte activation. The usefulness of complete cellular blood count parameters, such as leukocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils, erythrocytes, and platelets as predictors of obesity-triggered inflammation, was also proved in pediatric patients with overweight or obesity. The dogma that adipose tissue is a simple energy storage tissue is no longer accepted since it has been proved that it also has an incontestable multifunctional role acting like a true standalone organ resembling to endocrine or immune organs.
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