ABSTRACT
Objective:
To assess the
association between
leptin/
adiponectin ratio (LAR) and
insulin resistance surrogates in prepubertal
children. Subjects and
methods:
Study based on data from the
Growth and
Obesity Chilean
Cohort Study (GOCS) involving 968 Chilean prepubertal
children.
Plasma insulin,
leptin, and
adiponectin were determined by
immunoassays. Several common
insulin resistance surrogates were calculated, including the
homeostasis model assessment of
insulin resistance (HOMA-IR),
triglyceride/
HDL cholesterol index,
triglyceride-
glucose (TyG) index, and the TyG index corrected for
body mass index (BMI; TyG-BMI) and
waist circumference (WC; TyG-WC).
Associations among variables were assessed using multiple linear and
logistic regression analysis.
Results:
There was a significant direct
association between
plasma leptin and LAR with BMI z-score but no
association between
plasma adiponectin and
adiposity. After
adjustments for
sex and age, LAR was significantly associated with all
insulin resistance surrogates (which were categorized using the 75th percentile as the cutoff point), with the TyG-WC index emerging as the surrogate with the highest
magnitude of
association (
odds ratio [OR] 2.44, 95%
confidence interval [CI] 2.05-2.9). After additional
adjustment for BMI z-score, only the
association between LAR and TyG-WC remained significant (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.27-2.12).
Conclusion:
Plasma leptin and LAR were strongly associated with several common
insulin resistance surrogates in prepubertal
children, most notably with the TyG-WC index.
Associations between LAR and
insulin resistance indexes were mainly driven by the effect of
plasma leptin, which is also directly associated with increased
adiposity.