SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Immunology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1560080
This article is part of the Research TopicStress, Immunity, and Inflammation in Metabolic DisordersView all 6 articles
Leptin, CRP and Adiponectin correlate with body fat percentage in adolescents: Systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
Ariane Rocha*
Núbia Morais
Francilene Azevedo
Dayane de Castro Morais
Patrícia Pereira
Maria Do Carmo Gouveia Peluzio
Sylvia do Carmo Castro FranceschiniSilvia Eloiza Priore- Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil
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Introduction: Adipose tissue is important in the secretion of inflammatory substances, and may be directly or indirectly associated to the development of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in adolescence. Objective: To evaluate whether inflammatory markers are associated to body fat percentage in adolescents. Methodology: Systematic review conducted following the items of the PRISMA, and registered in PROSPERO. The descriptors adolescent, body fat distribution and cytokines were combined together in the electronic databases: Scopus, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Scholar Google and ProQuest, independently by two researchers, in January 2022 and update in November 2024. Meta-analysis of the correlation of inflammatory markers with body fat percentage was conducted using the metacor function of the meta package of the RStudio software (4.0.4). Results: Resulted in 7,592 records, of which 31 articles met the inclusion criteria and were selected for this study. Cross-sectional and prospective cohort observational studies were included. The meta-analysis included 4,682 adolescents, aged 10 to 19 years, of both sexes.The inflammatory markers leptin and C-reactive protein were positively correlated (r= 0,67; r= 0,32) and adiponectin was negatively correlated (r= -0,23) with body fat percentage in adolescents of both sexes. Conclusion: In adolescents, the body fat percentage is related to the inflammatory markers leptin, C-reactive protein and adiponectin. It is important to evaluate the body fat composition of adolescents in clinical practice to identify those with a higher percentage of fat, that may reflect an inflammatory profile, as well as increased cardiometabolic risk that accompanies adolescents into adulthood.
Keywords: Adipose Tissue, adolescence, Body Composition, Inflammatory markers, Cardiometabolic risk
Received: 13 Jan 2025; Accepted: 10 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rocha, Morais, Azevedo, Morais, Pereira, Peluzio, Franceschini and Priore. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ariane Rocha, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil
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