Journal article
Inflammation mediates the relationship between obesity and retinal vascular calibre in 11-12 year-olds children and mid-life adults
Mengjiao Liu, Kate Lycett, Margarita Moreno-Betancur, Tien Yin Wong, Mingguang He, Richard Saffery, Markus Juonala, Jessica A Kerr, Melissa Wake, David P Burgner
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | NATURE RESEARCH | Published : 2020
Abstract
Obesity predicts adverse microvasculature from childhood, potentially via inflammatory pathways. We investigated whether inflammation mediates associations between obesity and microvascular parameters. In 1054 children (mean age 11 years) and 1147 adults (44 years) from a cross-sectional study, we measured BMI (z-scores for children) and WHtR, Glycoprotein acetyls (GlycA), an inflammatory marker, and retinal arteriolar and venular calibre. Causal mediation analysis methods decomposed a "total effect" into "direct" and "indirect" components via a mediator, considering continuous and categorical measures and adjusting for potential confounders. Compared to normal-weight BMI children, those wit..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Awarded by Royal Children's Hospital Foundation
Awarded by National Heart Foundation of Australia
Awarded by Financial Markets Foundation for Children
Awarded by Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellowship
Awarded by National Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
Awarded by ARC DECRA Fellowship
Awarded by NHMRC
Awarded by Principal Research Fellowship
Awarded by Honorary Future Leader Fellowship of the National Heart Foundation of Australia
Funding Acknowledgements
This study uses data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) and Child Health CheckPoint. We thank the LSAC and CheckPoint study participants and families. We also thank the CheckPoint team and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. LSAC is conducted in partnership between the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to DSS, AIFS or the ABS. This work was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grants [1041352, 1109355], The Royal Children's Hospital Foundation [2014-241], Murdoch Children's Research Institute, The University of Melbourne, National Heart Foundation of Australia [100660] and Financial Markets Foundation for Children [2014-055, 2016-310]. M.L. is supported by a Melbourne Research Scholarship. KL is supported by Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellowship [1091124] and National Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship [101239]. MMB is supported by an ARC DECRA Fellowship [DE190101326]. M.J. is supported by Juho Vainio Foundation and federal research grants to Turku University Hospital. M.W. was supported by NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship [1046518], Principal Research Fellowship [1160906] and Cure Kids New Zealand. D.P.B. is supported by NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship [1064629] and is an Honorary Future Leader Fellowship of the National Heart Foundation of Australia [100369]. Research at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute is supported by the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Program. The funding bodies did not play any role in the study other than the generous provision of funds.