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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Cardiovascular Endocrinology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1492778
This article is part of the Research Topic Re-visiting Risk Factors for Cardiometabolic Diseases: Towards a New Epidemiological Frontier View all 13 articles

Associations between accurate measures of adiposity and fitness, blood proteins, and insulin sensitivity among South Asians and Europeans

Provisionally accepted
Pik Fang Kho Pik Fang Kho 1,2Laurel Stell Laurel Stell 3Shirin Jimenez Shirin Jimenez 1,4Daniela Zanetti Daniela Zanetti 1,2,5Daniel John Panyard Daniel John Panyard 6Kathleen Watson Kathleen Watson 7Ashish Sarraju Ashish Sarraju 1,8Ming-Li Chen Ming-Li Chen 1,2Lars Lind Lars Lind 9John R Petrie John R Petrie 10Khin Chan Khin Chan 2Holly Fonda Holly Fonda 2Kyla Kent Kyla Kent 11,2JONATHAN MYERS JONATHAN MYERS 1,12,2Latha Palaniappan Latha Palaniappan 1,12,13Fahim Abbasi Fahim Abbasi 1Themistocles Leonard Assimes Themistocles Leonard Assimes 1,12,13,2*
  • 1 Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
  • 2 VA Palo Alto Healthcare System, Palo Alto, United States
  • 3 Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
  • 4 Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, UC Davis Health, Sacramento, California, United States
  • 5 Institute of Genetic and Biomedical Research, National Research Council, Cagliari, Italy
  • 6 Departments of Genetics, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
  • 7 Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, United States
  • 8 Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, United States
  • 9 Department of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden
  • 10 Institute of Health and Wellbeing, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
  • 11 Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
  • 12 Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanfordd, California, United States
  • 13 Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: South Asians (SAs) may possess a unique predisposition to insulin resistance (IR). We explored this possibility by investigating the relationship between 'gold standard' measures of adiposity, fitness, selected proteomic biomarkers, and insulin sensitivity among a cohort of SAs and Europeans (EURs). Methods: A total of 46 SAs and 41 EURs completed 'conventional' (lifestyle questionnaires, standard physical exam) as well as 'gold standard' (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry scan, cardiopulmonary exercise test, and insulin suppression test) assessments of adiposity, fitness, and insulin sensitivity. In a subset of 28 SAs and 36 EURs, we also measured the blood-levels of eleven IR-related proteins. We conducted Spearman correlation to identify correlates of steady-state plasma glucose (SSPG) derived from the insulin suppression test, followed by multivariable linear regression analyses of SSPG, adjusting for age, sex and ancestral group. Results: Sixteen of 30 measures significantly associated with SSPG, including one conventional and eight gold standard measures of adiposity, one conventional and one gold standard measure of fitness, and five proteins. Multivariable regressions revealed that gold standard measures and plasma proteins attenuated ancestral group differences in IR, suggesting their potential utility in assessing IR, especially among SAs. Conclusion: Ancestral group differences in IR may be explained by accurate measures of adiposity and fitness, with specific proteins possibly serving as useful surrogates for these measures, particularly for SAs.

    Keywords: South Asians, Europeans, Insulin Resistance, physical activity, plasma proteins analysis, Max VO2, DXA (Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry), cardiorespiratory fitness

    Received: 08 Sep 2024; Accepted: 20 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kho, Stell, Jimenez, Zanetti, Panyard, Watson, Sarraju, Chen, Lind, Petrie, Chan, Fonda, Kent, MYERS, Palaniappan, Abbasi and Assimes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Themistocles Leonard Assimes, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, California, United States

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