The markers of chronic inflammation and obesity have a "tag you're it" kind of effect. The first marker to be "it" is TNF-a which in turn tags IL-6. IL-6 then induces CRP synthesis. Elevated blood concentrations of TNF-a, IL-6 and CRP indicate that there is an inflammatory condition occuring in your body which also stimulates obesity. The theory though, is that exercise and diet will reduce and perhaps eliminate the effects of TNF-a, IL-6, and CRP.
I read an article from the International Journal of Obesity that proves there is a decrease in CRP levels after significant weight loss following gastric banding. Exercise and diet will have similar effects as the gastric banding which proves that fat mass triggers the production of CRP. However, what was interesting, to me, was the fact that the TNF-a and IL-6 levels remained unchanged after the surgery. The authors speculate that there may be other mediators involved with the inflammation effect leading to obesity.
Laimer, M, et. al. "Markers of chronic inflammation and obesity: a prospective study on the reversibility of this association in middle-aged women undergoing weight loss by surgical intervention." International Journal of Obesity 26, 659-662. May 2002.
<http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v26/n5/full/0801970a.html.>
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Brooke,
It is really interesting that there is a significantly decreased concentration of CRP found after gastric banding, while IL-6 and TNFa appear significantly unchanged.
But because TNFa and IL6 are (in addition to CRP) markers of chronic inflammation, could this imply that there is still a significant degree of inflammation? The article only seemed to make reference to a decreased weight corresponding to a decreased CRP level, but never commented on other common inflammatory markers such as macrophage concentration in the adipose tissue.
Or does the sole decrease in CRP indicate that inflammation has been significantly reduced in accordance with weight loss?
One interesting thing I noticed about the article is that only one of the twenty subjects examined were diabetic, which is a condition that often goes hand in hand with severe obesity and chronic inflammation. Do you think the mechanistic effects of diabetes would lead to different changes in the levels of TNFa, IL-6, and CRP if the gastric bands were given to obese and diabetic individuals?
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