Introduction

There are very different reports regarding whether adropin levels are low, moderate, or high in childhood obesity and obesity-related comorbidities. However, data on the effects of age, sex, and puberty are insufficient.

Material and methods

We planned a case-control study consisting of 59 obese patients (female [F] = 35/male [M] = 24) and 40 healthy controls (F = 21/M = 19). Additionally, obese children were re-evaluated following a 12-week diet intervention. Serum glucose, insulin, lipid profiles, liver function tests, and adropin levels were examined.

Results

While age (12.5 ±4.1 years vs. 9.9 ±4.7 years, p = 0.006), body mass index (BMI) standard deviation score (SDS) (3.1 ±0.7 standard deviation [SD] vs. –0.3 ±0.8 SD, p < 0.001), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (30 ±16.9 U/l vs. 17.7 ±7.1 U/l, p < 0.001) were higher in obese children, adropin (212.2 ±67.7 ng/l vs. 369.2 ±64.6 ng/l, p < 0.001) was lower than healthy controls. When age, sex, BMI SDS, and ALT were evaluated together in multivariate regression analysis (all patients), BMI SDS was found to be the only independent factor effecting adropin level ( = –0.6, p < 0.001). We observed an increase in adropin levels compared to baseline following 12-week diet intervention, in obese children (212.2 ±67.7 ng/l vs. 237.4 ±87.3 ng/l, p = 0.03).

Conclusions

The effect of parameters such as age, sex, and BMI SDS on adropin shows that the only independent factor effecting the alteration of adropin level is BMI SDS.