Clinical Significance of Chemerin in Obesity and Metabolic syndrome in Children

The prevalence of obesity has been increasing worldwide. Chemerin is a recently discovered adipokine that regulates fat formation and metabolism. This novel marker has been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome. Thus, the focus of our interest was to evaluate the significance of circulating chemerin in obesity and metabolic syndrome in children. The study design was cross sectional, thirty obese children were enrolled in this study; 14 of them had the diagnostic criteria of metabolic syndrome. Besides, 30 healthy sex and age matched subjects served as control group were included in the study. Serum chemerin level was quantified by ELISA. Subjects’ height, weight, BMI, BMI Z-score, blood pressure, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, and lipid profile were simultaneously assessed. Serum chemerin level recorded significant increase versus the control group (424.2±61.0 vs 300.3+25, P = 0.000). Additionally, serum chemerin level was positively correlated with weight (r=0.4, p=0.02), height (r=0.4, p=0.05) and waist circumference (r=0.4, p=0.02). In conclusion, the current research study provided clinical evidences for the role of circulating chemerin in the pathophysiology of obesity and metabolic syndrome. This could be beneficial against the development of their complications.