Assessing allostatic load as a chronic stress marker in adolescents with anorexia nervosa: the impact of malnutrition

Magenes Vittoria Carlotta; Lucia Labati; Virginia Rossi; Nadia Fratangeli; Valentina Fabiano; Leonardo Mendolicchio; Gianvincenzo Zuccotti; Valeria Calcaterra

doi:10.1530/endoabs.110.EP882

EP882

Prev Next

Section Contents Cite

Endocrine Abstracts (2025) 110 EP882 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.110.EP882

ECEESPE2025 ePoster Presentations Metabolism, Nutrition and Obesity (164 abstracts)

Assessing allostatic load as a chronic stress marker in adolescents with anorexia nervosa: the impact of malnutrition

Vittoria Carlotta Magenes ¹ , Lucia Labati ² , Virginia Rossi ¹ , Nadia Fratangeli ³ , Valentina Fabiano ^1,4 , Leonardo Mendolicchio ³ , Gianvincenzo Zuccotti ^1,4 & Valeria Calcaterra ^1,5

Author affiliations

¹Buzzi Children’s Hospital, Department of Paediatrics, Milan, Italy; ²Buzzi Children’s Hospital, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Milan, Italy; ³I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Experimental Laboratory for Metabolic Neurosciences Research, Piancavallo, Italy; ⁴University of Milan, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Science, Milan, Italy; ⁵University of Pavia, Department of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, Pavia, Italy

JOINT2298

Introduction: Allostatic load (AL) refers to the physiological response associated with the burden of chronic stress. Malnutrition is an important source of physiological stress that promotes a detrimental chronic low-inflammation state. In order to define a correlation between cumulative biological dysregulation and severe malnutrition, we measured AL scores in in adolescents with AN

Patients and Methods: We enrolled 40 adolescents (15,99 ± 1,40 yrs) with AN. Data based on 15 biomarkers were used to create the AL score. A dichotomous outcome of high AL was defined for those who had ≥2 dysregulated components (aligning with the population median). Body mass index (BMI)-standard deviation score (SDS) <- 3and biochemical markers (≥2) defined severe malnutrition.

Results: High AL and severe malnutrition were noted in 31/40 (77.5%) and 9/40 (22.5%) subjects respectively. Subjects with a high AL, in addition to a lower BMI z-score (P =0.02), showed higher triglycerides (P = 0.03), ALT (P < 0.01), AST (P = 0.01) and lower VitD (P <0.01) and Vit B12 (P = 0.02) levels than subjects with a low AL. The risk of the cumulative biological dysregulation is correlated with severity of malnutrition (P =0.02). The AUROC of malnutrition upon detection of cumulative biological dysregulation was 0.759.

Conclusions: A high AL was associated with severe malnutrition in AN. AL may be considered a significant factor correlated with increased morbidity in adolescents who present AN.