Endocrine Abstracts

Recently,we reported that obesity is an independent risk factor for lipid peroxidation in man and hypothesised that cytokines might play a part in this.The objective of this study was to find out if the serum concentrations of interleukin-18 and tumour necrosis factor alpha were associated with body mass index and plama malondialdehyde concentration in healthy adults.The study population consisted of 570 adults aged 15 years and older.We determined their body weights and heights and collected blood for serum interleukin-18 and tumour necrosis factor alpha as well as plasma malondialdehyde.IL-18 and tumour necrosis factor were measured in serum with commercial ELISA kits,while plasma malondialdehyde was measured fluorometrically.These cytokines were found to be higher in morbid obesity than in people with ideal body weight.Serum IL-18 was associated to age(r=0.30,P=0.001),body mass index(r=0.27,P=0.01),tumour necrosis factor alpha (r=0.30,P=0.04) and malondialdehyde(r=0.22,P=0.04)