Anthropometric measures, predicted visceral adipose tissue and biomarkers of chronic inflammation

Evidence has linked low-grade systemic inflammation and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) with development of chronic conditions. Cytokines and select proteins released by VAT may promote a low-grade inflammatory response. A number of equations have been developed to estimate VAT levels. In this study, we compared predicted VAT equation relationships with biomarkers of inflammation.

This was a cross-sectional study of 2038 men and women aged 46-73 years. Correlation and linear regression analyses were performed to examine inflammatory biomarker relationships with four commonly assessed anthropometric measures and 10 predicted VAT equations.

Compared with anthropometric measures, predicted VAT equations were found to explain a greater proportion of variance in CRP (R²  = .075, p = .001), IL-6 (R²  = .060, p = .001), TNF-α (R²  = .017, p = .005), resistin (R²  = .011, p = .012), monocyte (R²  = .027, p = .001), eosinophil (R²  = .012, p = .01) and basophil (R²  = .015, p = .002) levels in males, and a greater variance in concentrations of C3 (R²  = .175, p = .001), IL-6 (R²  = .090, p = .001), TNF-α (R²  = .036, p = .001), adiponectin (R²  = .121, p = .001), the adiponectin-to-leptin ratio (R²  = .444, p = .001), resistin (R²  = .025, p = .001), white blood cell count (R²  = .057, p = .001), neutrophils (R²  = .061, p = .001) and lymphocytes (R²  = .020, p = .001) in females.

Equations for assessing VAT levels might be useful to characterise metabolic health. Further studies that examine predicted VAT relationships with disease and mortality outcomes are warranted.