A low visceral fat proportion, independent of total body fat mass, protects obese adolescent girls against fatty liver and glucose dysregulation: a longitudinal study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The relative proportion of visceral fat (VAT) to subcutaneous fat (SAT) has been described as a major determinant of insulin resistance (IR). Our study sought to evaluate the effect of body fat distribution on glucose metabolism and intrahepatic fat content over time in a multiethnic cohort of obese adolescents.

Subjects/methods

We examined markers of glucose metabolism by oral glucose tolerance test, and body fat distribution by abdominal MRI at baseline and after 19.2 ± 11.4 months in a cohort of 151 obese adolescents (88 girls, 63 boys; mean age 13.3 ± 3.4 years; mean BMI z-score 2.15 ± 0.70). Hepatic fat content was assessed by fast-gradient MRI in a subset of 93 subjects. We used the median value of VAT/(VAT + SAT) ratio within each gender at baseline to stra

SUBMITTER: Umano GR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9354568 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature