PLoS ONE (Mar 2011)

Lean body mass, interleukin 18, and metabolic syndrome in apparently healthy Chinese.

  • Liang Sun,
  • Frank B Hu,
  • Zhijie Yu,
  • Huaixing Li,
  • Huaiyu Liu,
  • Xiangdong Wang,
  • Danxia Yu,
  • Hongyu Wu,
  • Geng Zhang,
  • Geng Zong,
  • Yong Liu,
  • Xu Lin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018104
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 3
p. e18104

Abstract

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ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate how lean body mass is related to circulating Interleukin 18 (IL-18) and its association with metabolic syndrome (MetS) among apparently healthy Chinese.MethodsA population-based sample of 1059 Chinese men and women aged 35-54 years was used to measure plasma IL-18, glucose, insulin, lipid profile, inflammatory markers and high-molecular-weight (HMW)-adiponectin. Fat mass index (FMI) and lean mass index (LMI) were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. MetS was defined by the updated National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria for Asian-Americans.ResultsCirculating IL-18 was positively correlated with LMI after adjustment for FMI (correlation coefficient = 0.11, PConclusionElevated plasma IL-18 was associated with higher MetS prevalence in apparently healthy Chinese, independent of traditional risk factors, FMI, inflammatory markers and HMW-adiponectin. More studies are needed to clarify the role of lean mass in IL-18 secretion and its associated cardio-metabolic disorders.