ABSTRACT

Obesity is associated with enhanced lipid peroxidation. Malondialdehyde (MDA), one of several by-products of lipid peroxidation process, is a biomarker that provides an indication of lipid peroxidation level. It was aimed to determine the oxidant damage in obese children.

Thirty two children with obesity and 20 age-matched non-obese children were evaluated. None of the subjects were receiving any medication that could af-fect insulin levels, insulin sensitivity, or oxidative stress. After overnight fasting, blood was drawn from an antecubital vein for determination of biochemical parameters and MDA le-vels. Insulin resistance was assessed at baseline by using the homeostasis model assess-ment (HOMA).

Obese group had significantly higher fasting plasma insulin, fasting plasma gluco-se, plasma cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and increased blood pressure values as compared to controls (p<0.05). Serum MDA levels were significantly increased in obese children (9.856±3.705 µmol/L) when compared with non-obese children (5.43±1.096 µmol/L) (p=0.001). Significant positive correlations were observed between HOMA-IR values and body mass index (BMI) (p=0.0001) and between HOMA-IR values and MDA levels (p=0.003) in all subjects.

These findings suggest that obesity is an important factor for enhanced oxi-dative stress in children.

Keywords: childhood obesity, insulin resistance, malondialdehyde, oxidative stress