Opposite Associations of Trunk and Leg Fat Depots with Plasma Ferritin Levels in Middle-Aged and Older Chinese Men and Women

BACKGROUND Few data have been published on the associations of ferritin with trunk and leg fat depots. We aimed to investigate these associations in a Chinese population. METHODOLOGY Trunk fat mass and leg fat mass were determined in a cross-sectional sample of 1,150 Chinese (479 men and 671 women) aged 50-70 years by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan. Fasting plasma ferritin was measured. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Plasma ferritin was positively correlated with waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, total body fat and trunk fat mass, but inversely correlated with leg fat mass in men (r = 0.16, 0.26, 0.19, 0.22 and -0.12, respectively, all P<0.05) and women (r = 0.16, 0.16, 0.08, 0.17 and -0.12, respectively, all P<0.05). Multivariate regression analysis showed that ferritin levels increased with larger trunk fat mass (β = 0.33 ± 0.08 for men and β = 0.21 ± 0.05 for women, both P<0.001) while decreased with larger leg fat mass (β = -0.12 ± 0.09, P = 0.15 for men; and β = -0.14 ± 0.05, P = 0.005 for women). Moreover, plasma ferritin levels decreased with increasing tertile of leg fat mass among each tertile of trunk fat mass. CONCLUSION This is the first study to report the opposite associations of trunk and leg fat depots with plasma ferritin levels.