Gender-related differences in cardiometabolic risk factors and oxidative stress among prepubertal children with obesity

No, either or both parents with metabolic syndrome: comparative study of its impact on sons and daughters

Background

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is known to have parental influence on children's metabolic health, increasing the risk for the cardiometabolic diseases. However, the extent of the association and its sex-specific differences remain unclear.

Objective

This retrospective, comparative study aimed to investigate the influence of parental MetS on their offspring, utilizing data from the Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey.

Methods

The study population was narrowed to 5,245 participants. Each sex was further divided into three groups: children with neither parent having MetS were labeled as "No," those with only one affected parent was labeled as "Either," and those with both parents affected were labeled as "Both." Analysis of covariance and multiple regression analysis were used to compare the cardiometabolic risk factors among the three groups.

Results

Children with one or both parents affected by MetS had significantly higher waist circumference, blood pressure, triglycerides, and fasting glucose levels. These associations were more profound in boys than in girls.

Conclusion

Metabolic risk factors were more strongly associated with parental MetS in boys than in girls. The number of parental MetS cases appeared to have a proportional impact on metabolic components in boys, unlike the variable results observed in girls. These results emphasize the need for targeted interventions in families with a history of MetS.

Obesity and dyslipidemia in early life: Impact on cardiometabolic risk

Childhood obesity with its growing prevalence worldwide presents one of the most important health challenges nowadays. Multiple mechanisms are involved in the development of this condition, as well as in its associations with various cardiometabolic complications, such as insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and cardiovascular diseases. Recent findings suggest that childhood obesity and associated dyslipidemia at least partly originate from epigenetic modifications that take place in the earliest periods of life, namely prenatal and perinatal periods. Hence, alterations of maternal metabolism could be fundamentally responsible for fetal and neonatal metabolic programming and consequently, for metabolic health of offspring in later life. In this paper, we will review recent findings on the associations among intrauterine and early postnatal exposure to undesirable modulators of metabolism, development of childhood obesity and later cardiometabolic complications. Special attention will be given to maternal dyslipidemia as a driven force for undesirable epigenetic modulations in offspring. In addition, newly proposed lipid biomarkers of increased cardiometabolic risk in obese children and adolescents will be analyzed, with respect to their predictive potential and clinical applicability.