Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation between childhood obesity and gut microbiota diversity, inflammatory status, and serum adipokine levels through a single-center cross-sectional retrospective study. METHODS: This study was a single-center cross-sectional retrospective analysis. A total of 116 obese children were divided into three groups (A, B, and C) based on BMI overweight degree and 40 healthy children (group D) were also enrolled. The fecal samples and the gut microbiota alpha diversity index (Chao1, Observed species, PDwholetree) were analyzed through high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA. The fasting serum was collected and used to detect the levels of inflammatory markers (CRP, IL-1 β, TNF - α) and adipokines (adiponectin, leptin, resistin) by ELISA assay. The inter group comparison was conducted using analysis of variance, and the correlation was analyzed by Pearson analysis. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy control group, the diversity index of gut microbiota and adiponectin levels in the obese group were significantly reduced, and decreased with the severity of obesity. The levels of inflammatory markers, leptin, and resistin significantly increased, and increased with the severity of obesity (all P<0.05). According to Pearson correlation analysis, Chao1 index, Observed specific index and PD whole tree index were positively correlated with serum adiponectin levels (r=0.584, 0.552, 0.415, all P<0.001), and negatively correlated with leptin (r=-0.629, -0.614, -0.478, all P<0.001) and resistin (r=-0.499, -0.444, -0.273, P<0.01). Serum CRP, IL-1 β, TNF - α were negatively correlated with adiponectin (r=-0.565, -0.676, -0.709, all P<0.001), and positively correlated with leptin (r=0.509, 0.661, 0.749, all P<0.001) and resistin (r=0.457, 0.497, 0.533, all P<0.001). CONCLUSION: This single-center study indicates that obese children exhibit reduced gut microbiota diversity, chronic low-grade inflammation, and lipid factor imbalance, and these three factors are interrelated, suggesting a potential synergistic effect in the development of childhood obesity.