C-reactive protein and hormones but not IL-6 are associated to body mass index in first trimester of pregnancy.
Kac G., Vaz JDS., Schlüssel MM., Moura AS.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate if body mass index (BMI) is related to inflammatory markers and hormones in early pregnancy. METHODS: A prospective study with 190 pregnant women evaluated at 10 weeks when leptin, insulin, homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured. Median and inter-quartile values of hormones and inflammatory markers are presented according to BMI quintiles. Spearman correlations and Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance were implemented followed by Mann-Whitney post hoc pair-wise tests. RESULTS: Leptin (P < 0.001), insulin (P = 0.005), HOMA-IR (P = 0.015), and CRP (P = 0.026) assumed higher and significantly median values as BMI quintiles increases, but no differences were observed for IL-6 (P = 0.859). Pair-wise comparisons among quintiles (Q) of BMI were significant for leptin (Q1 × Q3, Q1 × Q4, Q1 × Q5, Q2 × Q4, Q2 × Q5, Q3 × Q5), insulin (Q1 × Q5, Q2 × Q5, Q3 × Q5, Q4 × Q5) and for CRP (Q1 × Q4, Q1 × Q5, Q2 × Q5). Spearman correlation coefficients between BMI showed significant results for leptin (r (s) = 0.58, P < 0.001), insulin (r (s) = 0.19, P = 0.018), HOMA-IR (r (s) = 0.22, P = 0.007), CRP (r (s) = 0.26, P < 0.001), but not for IL-6 (r (s) = -0.06, P = 0.526). Median (mg/L) values of CRP were higher in overweight (35.26) than in normal weight women (21.28, P = 0.051). CONCLUSIONS: The present investigation provides evidences on the positive relationship between BMI, leptin, insulin, HOMA-IR and CRP in early pregnancy. CRP but not IL-6 demonstrated a strong relation with overweight in pregnant women, as early as the tenth week.