Abstract
Background
Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is an intracellular enzyme that has an important immunomodulator function. Human inflammatory response promotes upregulation of IDO level in blood. This may lead to suppression of inflammation in atherosclerotic vessel wall and consequently may slow the progression of the disease. Previous studies have shown that IDO activity correlates with early signs of atherosclerosis especially in females but is not an atherosclerosis-specific marker.
Materials and methods
IDO levels were measured from females (n=544; age 24–39; weight 40.5–134.4 kg) in 2001 along with several risk factors for atherosclerosis. Follow-up risk factor measurements were performed in 2007 and 2011. Here we aimed to elucidate the relationship between IDO measurements from 2001 and several atherosclerotic risk factors from 2007 and 2011 by analyzing correlations and risk ratios from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study patient cohort.
Results
After age standardization, IDO correlated significantly with BMI (p=0.0008), waist (p=0.0009) and logarithmically modified triglycerides (p=0.0488) and CRP (p=0.0014) in female samples (n=434) from 2007. When female samples (n=384) from 2011 were examined, statistically significant correlations were discovered in BMI and Waist in both unadjusted (p<0.0001 and 0.0003, respectively) and age-adjusted analysis (p=0.0007 and 0.006, respectively). In contrast, only weak correlations were found in male samples. In risk ratio analysis IDO promoted obesity (RR=1.027, p=0.01) in females (n=431) in 10-year follow-up study even after the data was adjusted for age, CRP and BMI.
Conclusions
It is concluded that IDO activity forecasts obesity – a well-characterized risk factor for diabetes and atherosclerosis – in premenopausal females.
Sweets and sugar-sweetened soft drink intake in childhood in relation to adult BMI and overweight. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study
