Hormonal, metabolic and inflammatory circulating biomarker profiles in obese and non-obese Brazilian middle-aged women.

Abstract

AimTo investigate circulating hormonal, metabolic and inflammatory biomarker profiles in obese and non-obese middle-aged women.MethodsA total of 110 women, aged 40-60 years, were included in this cross-sectional study. Patients were allocated, according to the occurrence of menopause and body mass index (BMI), into four groups: PM0 (premenopausal non-obese), PM1 (premenopausal obese), M0 (postmenopausal non-obese), and M1 (postmenopausal obese). Serum levels of gonadotropins, sex hormones, lipid markers, leptin, hs-CRP and interleukin-6 were obtained using either colorimetric or immunoenzymatic assays. Univariate and correlation analyses were performed among all clinical and laboratorial parameters. Principal component analysis was used to characterize subsets of biomarkers, which had their discriminatory capacity tested using discriminant function analysis.ResultsLevels of gonadotropins and female sex hormones were similar between PM0 and PM1 and between M0 and M1 (p > 0.05), all of them varied between PM0 and M0 (p ConclusionA combined analysis of hormonal biomarkers may potentially distinguish obese from non-obese women with distinct menopause status. Further research is thus required to clarify the clinical significance of such findings.