Arteriosclerosis risk and body fat distribution in obese children with metabolic syndrome

The scarcity of published data regarding whether metabolic syndrome (MS) is involved in development of arteriosclerosis in children led us conduct the present study. To examine the relationship between MS and early arteriosclerosis risk in childhood, we compared percent body fat (%BF), visceral fat area (VFA), small dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particle size and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) among obese children with MS, obese and non-obese children without MS. The subjects were 76 Japanese children (41 obese, 35 non-obese) aged 7.0-12.6 years. Obesity was determined upon an obesity index of more than+20%. Obese children were grouped into with (n=5) and without (n=30) MS (abdominal obesity plus at least two other factors from hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, hypertension, and high fasting glucose). Obese children with MS had significantly higher %BF, as evaluated with air-displacement plethysmography, and VFA, as determined by magnetic resonance imaging, than obese and non-obese children without MS (p<0.05). VFA was strongly associated with %BF (r=0.709, p<0.05) and obesity index (r=0.742, p<0.05). Obese children with MS had significantly smaller LDL size and higher hsCRP, which is known to be novel markers characterizing the atherosclerotic process at an early stage, than other groups. Our findings suggest that metabolic syndrome more than obesity per se may have large total and visceral fat mass, and be involved in early arteriosclerosis risk in children.