Longitudinal association of inflammatory markers with markers of glycemia and insulin resistance in European children

Purpose: Subclinical systemic inflammation may lead to development of type 2diabetes, but there has been no investigation into its relationship with early progressionof glycaemic deterioration and insulin resistance, especially in youngerpopulation. In this study we assessed longitudinal associations of pro- and antiinflammatorymarkers with markers that evaluate glycaemia and insulin resistance.Methods: This study includes 6537 initially nondiabetic children (mean age atbaseline = 6.2 years) with repeated measurements from the IDEFICS/I.Familycohort study (mean follow-up = 5.3 years) from eight European countries. Markersof inflammation were used as independent variables and markers of glycaemia/insulinresistance as dependent variables. Associations were examined using two-levelgrowth model. Models were adjusted for sex, age, major lifestyle, metabolic riskfactors, early life markers, and other inflammatory markers in final model.Results: Children with 6 years of follow-up showed that a one-unit increase in zscoreof leptin level was associated with 0.38 (95% CI = 0.32 to 0.44) unitincrease in HOMA-IR z-scores. Leptin continued to be associated with HOMA-IReven when analysis was limited to children with no overall obesity, no abdominalobesity, and low to normal triglyceride levels. An inverse association was observedbetween IL-15 and HOMA-IR (? = -0.11, 95% CI = -0.15 to -0.07).Conclusions: IL-15 should be evaluated further in the prevention or treatment ofprediabetes whereas leptin may prove to be useful in early detection of prediabetesvia their association with markers of insulin resistance in European children