increased glypican-4 levels are associated with obesity in adolescents

Background: glypican-4 is an adipose tissue-originated cytokine which enhances insulin signaling through direct interaction with the insulin receptors. objectives: the aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between obesity and serum glipican-4 levels in adolescents. methods: our study was carried out on 80 volunteer adolescents, 49 were obese patients and 31 were healthy normal weight control cases. the adolescents with a body mass index (bmi) of 95% percentile and over were defined as obese in terms of age and sex. the enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay kit was utilized for the assessment of glypican-4 in serum. laboratory assays (glypican-4, glucose, urea, creatinine, ast, alt, total cholesterol, triglyceride, hba1c, insulin, homa-ir), age, sex and bmi were compared amidst the groups. correlations between glypican-4 levels and laboratory factors were analyzed in the obese adolescent group. results: the average age of the research participants was 13.2 ± 1.8 years. the mean bmi was 27.1 ± 5.1 kg/m . of the 49 obese ado- lescents, 41 were insulin resistant, and 8 did not have insulin resistance. the levels of glypican-4, bmi, ast, alt, hba1c, triglyceride, homa-ir and insulin were notably higher in the obese group than the control group (p < 0.05). in obese group, no statistically remarkable relationship was found between glypican-4 levels and other parameters (p > 0.05). conclusions: we found high serum glypican-4 levels in obese adolescents. we suggest that glypican-4 levels may be increased in order to reduce insulin resistance in obese adolescents.