Increased serum cholesteryl ester transfer protein in obese children.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether serum cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), which is one of the physiologically active gene products secreted from adipose tissue, is increased and associated with atherogenic lipoprotein profile in obese children.

RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Subjects were 42 consecutive outpatient Japanese obese children, 29 boys and 13 girls, ranging in age from 5 to 14 years, and 25 age-matched non-obese children, 13 boys and 12 girls, as the control group for measuring CETP mass. Blood was drawn after an overnight fast and, at the same time, and anthropometric measurements including height, body weight, waist girth, hip girth, and triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses were taken. Paired samples were obtained from 15 obese children who underwent psychoeducational therapy. Serum CETP mass was assayed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS: The serum levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, TC/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC), apolipoproteins (apo) B, apo B/apo A(1), and insulin in obese children were significantly higher than the respective reference values. Serum CETP level was approximately 2-fold higher (98.7 +/- 3.6 vs. 50.9 +/- 4.0 nM, means +/- SEM, p < 0.001) in the obese children than in the controls. In 15 obese children, whose percentage of overweight declined during therapy, CETP levels decreased significantly. CETP level was correlated with HDLC, TC/HDLC, and insulin, and with percentage of overweight when the data of the obese and non-obese children were combined.

DISCUSSION: CETP is increased and associated with the atherogenic lipoprotein profile in obese children.