ABSTRACT
Background: Obesity as a global public health problem is increasing in prevalence. Reports showed that obese children are more liable to infection than lean ones; it was claimed that obese subjects have altered peripheral blood total lymphocyte counts in addition to reduced lymphocyte proliferative response to mitogen stimulation as well as dysregulated cytokine expression
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of childhood obesity on cell mediated immunity as indicated by peripheral blood lymphocyte phenotyping. Methods: We enrolled 30 school-aged children [mean age 10 +/- 3.27 years]. They comprised two groups; 20 obese children with a mean body mass index [BMI] of 39.2 +/- 12.5 and 10 matched control subjects with mean BMI of 18.4 +/- 1.9. They were subjected to detailed anthropometric evaluation including weight, height, and waist hip ratio in addition to calculation of BMI, complete blood counting, and flow cytometric assessment of T-helper [CD4], T-cytotoxic/suppressor [CD8], and natural killer [CD56] cell counts
Results: The absolute lymphocyte [CD3] and natural killer cell [CD56] counts were comparable in both groups. However, the CD4%, CD8%, CD4/CD8 ratio were significantly lower in the obese children [p=0.02, 0.03, 0.015 respectively]. A significant negative correlation could be elicited between the CD4 count and bodyweight, BMI, and hip waist ratio [p = 0.00]; the same was observed for CD4/CD8 ratio [p = 0.00]. On the contrary, CD8 correlated positively to the bodyweight, BMI, and waist hip ratio [p = 0.00 for each]
Conclusion: Obesity has an impact on lymphocytic subset counts and further studies are needed to assess its effect on their function