Relationships Among Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Plasma Cytokines in African American Women.

OBJECTIVE: The principal objective of this investigation was to identify novel cytokine associations with BMI and type 2 diabetes (T2D).

METHODS: Cytokines were profiled from African American women with obesity who donated plasma to the Komen Tissue Bank. Multiplex bead arrays of analytes were used to quantify 88 cytokines and chemokines in association with clinical diagnoses of metabolic health. Regression models were generated after elimination of outliers.

RESULTS: Among women with obesity, T2D was associated with breast adipocyte hypertrophy and with six plasma analytes, including four chemokines (chemokine [C-C motif] ligand 2, chemokine [C-C motif] ligand 16, chemokine [C-X-C motif] ligand 1, and chemokine [C-X-C motif] ligand 16) and two growth factors (interleukin 2 and epidermal growth factor). In addition, three analytes were associated with obesity independently of diabetes: interleukin 4, soluble CD40 ligand, and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 3.

CONCLUSIONS: Profiling of inflammatory cytokines combined with measures of BMI may produce a more personalized risk assessment for obesity-associated disease in African American women.