Physical activity pattern and its relationship with overweight and obesity in saudi children.

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity among children and adolescents are emerging public health problems. Modifiable lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity and eating out are responsible for the increased prevalence of obesity and related health risks. OBJECTIVE: To examine physical activity level and weight status among Saudi children in relation to age and gender. STUDY DESIGN: In a cross-sectional study, 200 apparently healthy Saudi children (118 boys and 82 girls), aged 5-15 years, were enrolled from the Pediatric clinics at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. To determine physical activity level, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form-A was used. Anthropometric measurements were taken for all participants. RESULTS: Central obesity was highly prevalent among adolescents as compared with a higher prevalence of general obesity in children. Physical activity level was significantly higher among adolescent boys than adolescent girls (P<.05). Girls scored almost double the total metabolic equivalent scores. More boys were considered highly active (59% vs. 40%) in contrast with more girls with low physical activity (38% vs. 26%). Among girls, high physical activity score was higher in children than in adolescents (40% vs. 21%) and an increasing number of adolescents were of low physical activity than children (64% vs. 38%). The majority of the study population were spending more than 2 h per day in watching TV and playing electronic games, but a slightly higher number of children showed sedentary behavior than adolescents. Adolescent girls were significantly spending more time watching TV than adolescent boys (P<.01). Significant inverse associations with most anthropometric measures and the time spent in watching TV and doing desk work were demonstrated in both genders. CONCLUSION: This study reports significant influence, by age and gender, contributing to physical inactivity and weight status among Saudi children.

Relationship between serum resistin, body fat and inflammatory markers in females with clinical knee osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVES: Adipokines have gained much interest in osteoarthritis (OA) pathogenesis studies over the past years in that they play crucial roles in bone and cartilage homeostasis. Obesity is known to be one of the well-recognized and modifiable causes of OA burden. Key mediators in this metabolic link between obesity and OA could be resistin, among other cytokines secreted by the adipose tissue. We aimed to evaluate the association of serum resistin with obesity, and inflammation in female patients with knee OA. METHODS: One hundred female participants, aged above 40 years, with symptomatic primary knee OA were matched for age with 100 apparently healthy females in a case-control study design. All study participants were subjected to clinical examination, laboratory investigations and radiological examination. RESULTS: Patients with primary knee OA had elevated levels of serum resistin compared with healthy controls. We demonstrated that elevated serum resistin positively correlated with adiposity measures, inflammatory markers and WOMAC index. High sensitivity C reactive protein was found to be an independent predictor of serum resistin levels after adjustment for confounder factors. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that resistin may play an important role in the progression of knee OA and may serve as a novel and reliable biomarker for reflecting disease severity, with the potential to contribute to the fundamental processes underlying the pathogenesis of knee OA.

Association between serum resistin, adiposity measures and inflammatory makers in women without cardiovascular diseases.

AIMS: The convergence of obesity and inflammation in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has been recognized over the past decade. Resistin has emerged as a novel secreted protein with links to both insulin resistance and inflammation. We aimed to investigate the relationship between changes in serum resistin levels with metabolic parameters, including obesity and inflammatory markers in women free of CVD. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 200 apparently healthy women were consecutively recruited from the Out-patients Clinics at King Abdulaziz university Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. They were classified into 4 groups based on quartile for serum resistin. Anthropometric variables were measured in all study subjects. Fasting blood samples were collected for measurement of lipid profile, blood glucose and inflammatory markers. Study subjects within the upper quartile (Q4) had significantly higher body height (p < 0.0001), waist and hip circumferences (p < 0.05) and inflammatory markers (p < 0.0001) values than those in the lower quartile (Q1). Significant correlations were found between circulating resistin levels and systolic blood pressure, some anthropometric measures as well as inflammatory markers. CONCLUSION: Serum resistin levels were found to be increased in overweight and obese women. Resistin was also independently associated with hs-CRP in women free of CVD, suggesting that resistin may be related to low-grade inflammation among obese subjects in the absence of overt CVD.

Serum progranulin levels in relation to insulin resistance in childhood obesity.

BACKGROUND: Progranulin is an adipokine that is involved in the inflammatory response, glucose metabolism, insulin resistance, and may therefore be involved in chronic subclinical inflammation associated with the pathogenesis of childhood obesity. We aimed to investigate the association of circulating progranulin levels with metabolic parameters in children and to assess the importance of progranulin as a biomarker for metabolic diseases. METHODS: A total of 150 children were consecutively recruited from the Pediatric Nutrition Clinics at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Children were classified into four groups based on quartile for serum progranulin. Anthropometric variables were measured in all study subjects. Fasting blood samples were collected for measurement of blood glucose, insulin and lipid profile. RESULTS: Children within the upper quartile for serum progranulin concentration were heavier, more insulin resistant and had higher concentrations of serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin and high sensitivity C reactive protein compared to those in the lower quartile. On correlation analysis, serum progranulin concentrations were significantly related to general and central adiposity, metabolic parameters, markers of inflammation and insulin resistance. Stepwise multiple regression showed that 26.6% of the variability in serum progranulin could be explained by measures of adiposity. CONCLUSIONS: The increased serum progranulin concentrations were closely related to measures of adiposity, metabolic parameters, inflammatory marker and insulin resistance indices, suggesting that progranulin may be an excellent biomarker for obesity in childhood.

Bronchial asthma and hypovitaminosis D in Saudi children.

BACKGROUND: Asthma, a common lung disease in children, is caused by excessive immune responses to environmental antigens. OBJECTIVE: Given the immuno-modulatory properties of vitamin D, the aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between vitamin D levels and markers of asthma severity. METHODS: This was investigated in a 70 Saudi children with and without asthma and were recruited from the King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, over the period of 11 months (May 2011-April 2012). Childhood asthma control test instrument was employed to assess the level of asthma control among asthmatic patients. Anthropometric measurements were taken and interviewer-administrated questionnaire was completed for all study participants. Pulmonary function test was performed by recording changes in the peak expiratory flow. Venous blood samples were withdrawn for measurements of vitamin D, bone profile, cytokines profile (interleukin-10, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, platelets derived growth factor), and atopy markers (IgE and eosinophil count). RESULTS: Hypovitaminosis D is highly prevalent among asthmatic children with highly significant increase in several markers of allergy and asthma severity as compared with healthy control children. Significant correlations between several inflammatory and immunological markers and vitamin D levels were also found. Finally, lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were associated with a higher asthma prevalence in multivariable analysis. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that hypovitaminosis D is highly prevalent in the whole population in addition to a highly significant increase in several markers of allergy and asthma severity among asthmatic children as compared with healthy control children.

Plasma and red blood cells membrane lipid concentration of sickle cell disease patients.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to determine the concentration of plasma and red blood cells (RBCs) membrane lipids in Saudi sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. METHODS: This study was carried out at the Hematology Clinic, King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from October 1998 to October 1999. Lipid concentrations were determined in plasma and RBC membrane of 81 SCD patients and 66 normal healthy matched individuals (control). Different lipid parameters were measured according to standardized enzymatic assay methods. RESULTS: The plasma concentrations of total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol of SCD patients were significantly decreased (p<0.001), whereas the plasma concentrations of high density lipoprotein phospholipids were significantly increased (p<0.001). The plasma concentrations of apo A and apo B were significantly decreased (p<0.001) in SCD patients. However, the concentration of total cholesterol of RBC membrane was significantly increased (p<0.001) in SCD patients, while the phospholipid content was significantly decreased (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The significant increase of RBC membrane cholesterol concentration in SCD patients possibly is responsible to the change in RBC membrane fluidity that may play a direct role in the sickling phenomenon of RBCs in SCD.

Effect of dietary zinc deficiency on rat lipid concentrations.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the lipid profile in serum, liver, and testis of rats fed marginal and severe zinc deficient diets. METHODS: Three groups of rats were treated for 8 weeks with normal diet, marginally zinc deficient diet and severely zinc deficient diet. Lipid concentrations were measured in serum, liver, and testis of these groups. RESULTS: The concentrations of serum lipids were not significantly altered between marginally zinc deficient diet treated and control rats. However, in rats treated with severely zinc deficient diet, the concentrations of serum total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol and phospholipids were significantly increased (P < 0.01) and (P < 0.001), whereas the concentration of triacylglycerol was significantly decreased (P < 0.01). However, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration was non-significantly different from controls. The concentrations of liver total cholesterol, triacylglycerol and phospholipids were significantly decreased (P < 0.001) in rats treated with severely zinc deficient diet. The testicular concentration of total cholesterol was increased but this increase was non-significantly different from controls, whereas the testicular concentrations of triacylglycerol and phospholipids were significantly decreased (P < 0.001) in rats treated with severely zinc deficient diet. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that a marginally zinc deficient diet does not play a significant role in altering rat lipid concentrations. However, the changes in serum lipid concentrations could be related to those changes in tissue lipid concentrations.