Endocrine Abstracts

We recently observed that serum interleukin-18 and tumour necrosis factor alpha concentrations are positively associated with obesity and increased serum triglyceride concentration in man.The objective of this study was to find out if these cytokines were associated with hyperglyceamia,hyperlipidaemia,hypertension and hyperurcaemia in an adult population.The study population consisted of 570 apparently healthy adults aged 15 years and over.Systolic and diastolic blood pressures of the subjects were recorded.Their body weights and heights were also recorded.Fasting blood samples were collected for plasma glucose,triglyceride,total cholesterol,high-density lipoprotein cholesterol,low-density lipoprotein cholesterol,interleukin-18 and tumour necrosis factor alpha concentrations.Serum interleukin-18 concentations were found to be positively associated to systolic blood pressure(r=0.24,P=0.01),diastolic blood pressure(r=0.25,P=0.001),total cholesterol(r=0.22,P=0.03),triglyceride(r=0.38,P=0.001),fasting blood glucose(r=0.29,P=0.003),uric acid(r=0.18,P=0.05)and body mass index(r=0.27,P=0.01).Tumour necrosis factor alpha concentrations were also found to be associated with these indices.