In adults, obesity is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation, which may cause long-term adverse health consequences. We evaluated whether obesity in prepubertal children also generates this kind of inflammation and whether calprotectin and chemerin may be useful markers for early detection of such inflammation in this group of children. The study population included 83 children aged 2 to 10 years; 62 with obesity and without components of metabolic syndrome and 21 healthy controls with normal body weight. White blood cell (WBC) count, concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), calprotectin, and chemerin were determined in peripheral blood. Our study showed that in the group with obesity, serum concentrations of calprotectin and chemerin, as well as CRP were significantly higher as compared with the controls. We found a significant positive correlation between serum chemerin concentrations and BMI z-score (r = 0.33, p < 0.01) in children with obesity. Chemerin concentration was also positively correlated with CRP level (r = 0.36, p < 0.01) in the whole group of children. These findings suggest that obesity may generate chronic low-grade inflammation as early as in the prepubertal period which can be indicated by significantly higher serum concentrations of calprotectin and chemerin. Calprotectin and especially chemerin seem to be promising indicators of this type of inflammation in children with obesity, but the correlation between these markers requires further research.

中文翻译：

---

血清钙卫蛋白和凯莫瑞浓度作为青春期肥胖儿童低度炎症的标志

在成年人中，肥胖与慢性轻度炎症有关，可能引起长期的不良健康后果。我们评估了青春期前儿童的肥胖症是否也产生了这种炎症，以及钙卫蛋白和凯莫瑞是否可以作为早期检测此类儿童炎症的有用标志物。研究人群包括83名2至10岁的儿童；62例肥胖且无代谢综合征成分的人和21例正常体重的健康对照组。测定外周血中的白细胞（WBC）计数，C反应蛋白（CRP），白介素6（IL-6），钙卫蛋白和凯莫瑞的浓度。我们的研究表明，在肥胖症组中，钙卫蛋白和凯莫瑞以及CRP的血清浓度均比对照组高。p <0.01）在肥胖儿童中。在整个儿童组中，chemerin浓度与CRP水平也呈正相关（r = 0.36，p <0.01）。这些发现表明，肥胖可能最早在青春期之前就产生慢性低度炎症，这可以通过钙卫蛋白和凯莫瑞的血清浓度明显升高来表明。钙卫蛋白，尤其是凯莫瑞似乎是肥胖儿童这种炎症的有前途的指标，但这些标志物之间的相关性需要进一步研究。