Endocrine Abstracts

Background: It is well known that many nuerohormonal and genetic factors influence on the developing of obesity in children. Serotoninergic system is determined to be one of the most important factors. Serotonin may induce lipogenesis or triacylglycerol synthesis in the liver and/or white adipose tissue.

Aim: To establish interactions between serotoninergic system and metabolic parameters in obese children.

Methods: We examined 280 children (boys/girls=157/123) with different forms of obesity (age – 14.2±2.1 yrs, BMI – 32.5±5.4 kg/m²) and 80 normal weight control (boys/girls=35/45) (age – 14.3±2.1 yrs (P=0.7), BMI – 19.7±2,1 kg/m² (P=0.0001)). Blood samples were collected with the determining of serotonin, triglycerides (TG), fasting glucose, total cholesterole (TCh), low- (LDLP) and high density lipoproteid (HDLP) levels. Genetic assay with the determining of metilsallitilite levels of monoaminioxydase A gene (MAOA) and gene of serotonin transporter (SLC6A4) were made. The results were processed using SPSS 18.0.

Results: Obese children showed a significant increase of serotonin levels: obesity 259.2 [58.5, 378.3]; control - 131.7 [10, 276.1] (P=0.002, U=3426.5). There was a reliable correlation between serotonine and TG (P=0.025, rs=0.2), LDLP (P=0.036, rs=0.25) in obese children. We didn’t find any reliable correlation between serotonine and glucose, TCh, HDLP.

During the genetical assay we found that obese girls have MAOA 3/3 genotype 3 times more often compared to control girls, MAOA 4/4 genotype was found in 37,5% control and 19,4% obese girls. We didn’t find any significant differences between SLC6A4 gene between obese and control groups.

Conclusions: Serotonine levels are increased in obese children compared to control and have reliable correlations with TG, LDLP which can say about its influence on adipose tissue. MAOA 3/3 genotype seems to be interacted with obesity, additional investigations should be made.