TY - JOUR
T1 - Mediating Roles of hsCRP, TNF-α and Adiponectin on the Associations between Body Fat and Fatty Liver Disease among Overweight and Obese Adults
AU - Xie, Ming
AU - Tang, Haokai
AU - Li, Feifei
AU - Wu, Si
AU - Dong, Yanhui
AU - Yang, Yide
AU - Baker, Julien Steven
AU - Ma, Jun
N1 - Funding information:
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81903336, Yide Yang and 82103865, Yanhui Dong), the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No.2019JJ50376, Yide Yang), Scientific Research Project of Hunan Provincial Health Commission (No.202112031516, Yide Yang), Hunan province college students research learning and innovative experiment project (No. S202110542057, Haokai Tang) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talent (BX20200019 and 2020M680266, Yanhui Dong). The funders had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article.
Publisher copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/9/10
Y1 - 2021/9/10
N2 - Body fat has been reported to be associated with a higher risk of fatty liver disease (FLD). However, few studies have explored the mediating roles of an inflammatory biomarker or adipokine on the relationships. Here, we examined the potential mediating roles of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and adiponectin (APN) in relationships between body fat and FLD in overweight and obese adults. Additionally, gender differences will be investigated. In total, 1221 participants aged 19–56 years were included in our study. Body fat percentage was measured with Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) and FLD by abdominal ultrasound. Mediation analysis was performed to assess the mediating effect of hsCRP, TNF-α and APN on the associations between BF (%) and FLD by gender differences. We found that hsCRP was significantly associated with body fat percentage in both genders (b = 0.2014, p < 0.0001 and b = 0.1804, p < 0.0001 for male and female, respectively), while hsCRP was associated with FLD only in the female group (b = 0.1609, p = 0.0109) but not in male group (b = 0.4800, p = 0.0603). We observed that hsCRP has a significant mediating effect on the association between body fat percentage and FLD (b = 0.0290, p = 0.0201, mediation ratio: 13.6%) in the female group independent of potential covariates (age, smoking, alcohol drinking and physical activity). TNF-α was not significantly associated with body fat percentage or FLD, with no mediating effect on the association between body fat percentage and FLD in either gender. In conclusion, there is a gender-specific mediation role of hsCRP in the association between body fat and FLD. HsCRP was a potential mediator on the association between adiposity and FLD in the female gender, but not in the male gender. Higher body fat was associated with a higher risk of FLD, and the inflammation level might play a potential mediating role in the association between body fat and FLD among female overweight and obese adults.
AB - Body fat has been reported to be associated with a higher risk of fatty liver disease (FLD). However, few studies have explored the mediating roles of an inflammatory biomarker or adipokine on the relationships. Here, we examined the potential mediating roles of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and adiponectin (APN) in relationships between body fat and FLD in overweight and obese adults. Additionally, gender differences will be investigated. In total, 1221 participants aged 19–56 years were included in our study. Body fat percentage was measured with Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) and FLD by abdominal ultrasound. Mediation analysis was performed to assess the mediating effect of hsCRP, TNF-α and APN on the associations between BF (%) and FLD by gender differences. We found that hsCRP was significantly associated with body fat percentage in both genders (b = 0.2014, p < 0.0001 and b = 0.1804, p < 0.0001 for male and female, respectively), while hsCRP was associated with FLD only in the female group (b = 0.1609, p = 0.0109) but not in male group (b = 0.4800, p = 0.0603). We observed that hsCRP has a significant mediating effect on the association between body fat percentage and FLD (b = 0.0290, p = 0.0201, mediation ratio: 13.6%) in the female group independent of potential covariates (age, smoking, alcohol drinking and physical activity). TNF-α was not significantly associated with body fat percentage or FLD, with no mediating effect on the association between body fat percentage and FLD in either gender. In conclusion, there is a gender-specific mediation role of hsCRP in the association between body fat and FLD. HsCRP was a potential mediator on the association between adiposity and FLD in the female gender, but not in the male gender. Higher body fat was associated with a higher risk of FLD, and the inflammation level might play a potential mediating role in the association between body fat and FLD among female overweight and obese adults.
KW - inflammatory factor
KW - obesity
KW - mediation analysis
KW - body fat percentage
KW - gender difference
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85114814822&doi=10.3390%2fbiology10090895&partnerID=40&md5=97159f666d991f9e31beb82eaa6bc0a0
U2 - 10.3390/biology10090895
DO - 10.3390/biology10090895
M3 - Journal article
SN - 2079-7737
VL - 10
JO - Biology
JF - Biology
IS - 9
M1 - 895
ER -
