Background: Pediatric obesity continues to remain a serious health concern which has significantly increased the morbidity risk in adulthood. Recent studies have analyzed the impact of the two adipokines, RBP4 (retinol binding protein 4) and STRA6 (stimulated by retinoic acid 6) in pediatric obese subjects with contradictory results. Methods: An observational study was conducted in the Pediatric and Endocrinology Departments, Targu-Mures, Romania, including 213 children between 5-17 years of age, divided into two groups according to body mass index (BMI) standard deviation score (SDS): case (overweight or obese) and control (normal SDS). Age, sex, basic anthropometric and biochemical measurements and genotype of rs3758539, and rs10882280 for RBP4 gene and rs974456 and rs351224 of STRA6 gene were analyzed. Statistical analysis used SPSS v. 25.0, with a level of significance α = 0.05. Results: There is no association between the two gene's polymorphisms and obesity in our pediatric population. In regression analysis, with HOMA IR (homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance) as the outcome, the plasmatic level of RBP4 and fat mass percentage are significant predictors, with the model explaining 42% of the HOMA variability. Hypercholesterolemia was significantly associated with male sex, carrying variant allele and heterozygote status of rs10882280 RBP4 gene and wild-type allele rs351224 of STRA6 gene. Conclusion: There is no significant association between obesity and SNPs of the RBP4 and STRA6 in our population, but they seem to play a role in insulin resistance and hypercholesterolemia.

Background: Conflictual results regarding the relationship between plasmatic level of visfatin and obesity could be explained by the influence of the gene variants involved in the synthesis or action of these hormones.Objectives: The present study examined the potential implication of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) gene that encodes visfatin, in obesity, in a Romanian pediatric population.Method: A case-control study was conducted on a group of 213 children, divided into two: the case group - 130 overweight and obese children with BMI >1 SD, and the control group - 83 children with normal BMI. The variables analyzed were age, sex, anthropometric parameters, body composition based on bioimpedance analysis, lipid profile, visfatin and insulin plasmatic levels, rs4730153 and rs2302559 visfatin SNPs.Results: Significant associations were not found between rs4730153 and rs2302559 visfatin SNPs and obesity. Regarding lipid metabolism, there are statistically significant differences between triglyceride levels according to NAMPT rs2302559 genotypes (p=0.045), with heterozygous genotype having the highest level of triglycerides, and also between cholesterol levels according to NAMPT rs4730153 genotypes (p=0.030), with carriers of heterozygote genotype having the highest level of cholesterol. There is a statistically significant difference between the studied parameters in the investigated groups, regarding cholesterol, in carrier of wild-type genotype of NAMPT rs2302559 (p=0.040) and carrier of wild-type genotype of NAMPT rs4730153 (p=0.036). We observed no association of NAMPT rs4730153 and rs2302559 with visfatin levels in the studied groups. Visfatin level was lower in the case group and was correlated with weight (p=0.042), abdominal circumference (p=0.010), waist to height ratio (p=0.040), but not with the elements of the metabolic profile.Conclusion: NAMPT rs2302559 and rs4730153 polymorphisms do not seem to have a major impact in the development of obesity in children, however there may be an association with lipid profile, but further studies are needed..

No abstract

No abstract