Does sex modify the association between obesity/adiposity measures and cardiovascular disease-related protein biomarkers?
Sex modifies the relationship between visceral adiposity and cardiovascular risk biomarkers, suggesting distinct biological pathways for obesity-related cardiovascular disease in women compared to men.
BACKGROUND: Sex differences in obesity and fat distribution may in part explain differences in cardiovascular risk in men versus women. We sought to examine sex differences in the associations of obesity and adiposity measures with cardiovascular disease-related protein biomarkers. METHODS AND RESULTS: <0.001 in men). The associations of higher visceral adipose tissue with biomarkers representing adiposity, inflammation, and fibrosis were more pronounced in women versus men. CONCLUSIONS: We found that sex modified the associations of obesity and adipose traits with cardiovascular risk ascertained by cardiovascular disease-related biomarkers including markers of adiposity, inflammation, and fibrosis. These findings highlight potential biological pathways that may underlie some of the observed differences in obesity-related cardiovascular disease between women and men.
Ramirez et al. (Mon,) studied this question.