“…Raised concentrations of split proinsulin in adults have been interpreted as evidence of b-cell dysfunction (Temple et al, 1989) and a risk of impaired glucose tolerance (Hales et al, 1991), but its role as a metabolic marker in infancy has remained poorly understood (Hawdon et al, 1993;Singhal et al, 2003). We found a positive association between the high split proinsulin concentration and the ratio of adipocyte-derived cytokines-leptin and adiponectin-which have been found to correlate with adiposity (Schubring et al, 1999;Mantzoros et al, 2009), and metabolic disorders (Valle et al, 2003;Darendeliler et al, 2009) in newborns and children, and, further, to efficaciously reflect cardio-metabolic risks (Steinberger et al, 2003;Norata et al, 2007). On the other hand, weight status at the age of 6 months predicts obesity in childhood (Taveras et al, 2009), and here abdominal obesity, known to impair b-cell function (Hanley et al, 2002), was linked to the high split proinsulin concentration.…”