We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Liver Enzymes Correlate with Visceral but not Subcutaneous Adiposity: the IRAS Family Study.
- Authors
Chen, Y.-D. I.; Guo, Xiuqing; Liu, Yeheng; Cui, Jinrui; Hsu, Fangchi; Hanley, Anthony; Haffner, Steven; Bryer-Ash, Michael; Norris, Jill M.; Rotter, Jerome I.; Wagenknecht, Lynne E.
- Abstract
Elevated liver enzymes are known to predict diabetes and the metabolic syndrome, although few studies have evaluated the associations of these markers with detailed measures of important pathophysiological antecedents, including insulin resistance and abdominal obesity. In this context, our objective was to examine the relationship between liver enzymes and the homeostasis parameters, blood lipids, and adiposity variables. Over 1800 probands and family members were recruited by the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis (IRAS) Family Study, which was designed to search for the genetic determinants of insulin resistance and abdominal adiposity in a large bi-ethnic collection of families including African- (AA) and Hispanic-Americans (HA). Measures of glucose homeostasis assessed were insulin sensitivity (SI), glucose effectiveness (SG), acute insulin response (AIR), and disposition index (DI) determined by minimal model analysis of a frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test, and fasting glucose and insulin. Laboratory measures consisted of lipids and liver enzymes ALT (GPT), AST (GOT) and GGT. Subcutaneous (SAT) and visceral (VAT) adipose tissue areas were obtained by computerized tomography (CT) scanning. Subjects with diabetes were excluded. Less than 1% of the subjects reported more than 2 drinks a week, with only one having a maximal 6.7 drinks a week; thus there were no subjects with self-reported high-alcohol consumption for exclusion. Pearson correlation showed overall statistically significant relationships (p<0.01 to 0.0001) between ALT, AST and GGT with all glucose homeostasis (r=0.08 to 0.26), lipid (0.09 to 0.33), and BP variables (0.09 to 0.25). Importantly, only VAT (0.22 to 0.38) but not SAT (-0.02 to 0.06) correlated with the levels of liver enzymes. The association of GGT with all the studied variables was much stronger than that seen with ALT or AST. AST/ALT ratio showed similar relationship as ALT, with negative correlation coefficients for all variables. Similar results were found in both HA and AA groups. These remits suggest that the development of liver inflammation and visceral fat are closely related. On the other hand, subcutaneous fat does not play the same role as the abdominal fat in these minority cohorts.
- Subjects
ENZYMES; LIVER; OBESITY; DIABETES; METABOLIC syndrome; INSULIN resistance; HOMEOSTASIS; LIPIDS
- Publication
Diabetes, 2007, Vol 56, pA257
- ISSN
0012-1797
- Publication type
Article