Clinical Projects
“Investigating mechanisms of obesity-induced immune system activation and myelopoiesis in children and adolescents”
Goal of the study
To gain a better understanding of the specific inflammatory changes that occur in overweight and obese diabetic and non-diabetic children and adolescents, and to understand some of the drivers of the inflammatory profile and subsequent metabolic impairment.
Obesity:
* Obesity has tripled in children over the past three decades.
* One-third of children in the US are either overweight (16.2%) or obese (17.2%).
* Childhood obesity is responsible for $14 billion dollars in direct medical costs.
Inflammation:
* Both adults and children with obesity have an increase in absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) and monocytes, but the implications of this chronic low-grade inflammation in children are unclear.
* Studies in mice with high-fat diet have demonstrated an increase in circulating monocytes, which mature to activated pro-inflammatory adipose-tissue macrophages that accumulate in visceral fat and secrete cytokines, such as IL-6 and TNF- α.
Disease:
* There is an increased prevalence of obesity-associated comorbidities: type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, hypertension, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cholelithiasis, obstructive sleep apnea, obesity hypoventilation syndrome, asthma and many others.
* Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is the most common form of diabetes in the pediatric population. Obesity has also been found to be a risk factor for type 1 diabetes mellitus in genetically susceptible patients.
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