The association between serum uric acid and features of metabolic disturbances in young adults

Abstract

IntroductionThe increase in the number of people affected by different metabolic disturbances, especially among young people, is alarming. It seems worthwhile to reappraise the usefulness of commonly used laboratory parameters potentially associated with metabolic and metabolically obese normal weight syndrome. Serum uric acid may be considered as an indicator and/or a predictor of metabolic disorders. We evaluated serum uric acid concentration in relation to metabolic syndrome, as well as metabolically obese normal weight features, and examined its usefulness in improving metabolic and metabolically obese normal weight syndrome diagnosis in young people.Material and methodsIn 349 apparently healthy people, aged 18-31, features of metabolic and metabolically obese normal weight syndrome and serum uric acid concentration were examined under fasting conditions.ResultsPrevalence of metabolic syndrome increased in uric acid quartiles, while the percentage of metabolically obese normal weight syndrome was at a similar level in all uric acid quartiles. A relationship between uric acid concentration and features of metabolic disorders in quartile and correlation analysis was revealed. Data mining techniques did not indicate the usefulness of uric acid for distinguishing people with metabolic syndrome from those with metabolically obese normal weight syndrome.ConclusionsWe confirmed that in young people an increase in uric acid levels is more closely related to metabolic syndrome features than insulin resistance. Serum uric acid concentration could not be recommended as an independent, strong marker of metabolic or metabolically obese normal weight syndrome occurrence in young people, but finding its elevated concentration should be an indicator for screening for other disturbances associated with metabolic syndrome.

Longitudinal Association between Uric Acid and Incident Sarcopenia

“…Most females included in this study were menopausal, which resulted in a decrease of estrogen. Estrogen has been reported to promote the excretion of UA, which may result in elevated UA levels in menopausal females [ 31 ]. In addition, the decrease of estrogen could increase pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha or interleukine-6, which contributes to muscle catabolism [ 32 , 33 ].…”

Potential protective effects of increased serum uric acid concentration in sarcopenia: A meta-analysis and systematic review

“…[50] Estrogen may augment the excretion of UA, and a decline in estrogen levels in postmenopausal women may lead to an elevation in the UA concentration. [51] Estrogen is essential for stimulating muscle repair and regeneration. [52] The menopausal status of the included study participants may be an important factor.…”

Prevalence of Metabolically-Obese Normal-Weight Worldwide: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The data were collected from 26 studies; 26.92% of the studies were conducted in China (n = 7) [9,17,20,21,23,28,33], 19.23% (n = 5) [8,15,[29][30][31] in Iran, and 11.53% (n = 3) [13,16,25] in Korea. In addition, it was reviewed three countries with the same number of studies (n = 2), representing 7.69% each: United States [12,19], Spain [14,18], and Poland [22,35]; finally another five countries [24,26,27,32,34] (Peru, Italy, The Netherlands, Iceland and Palestine) represented 15.36% of the total manuscripts (3.84% each, n = 1) (Fig. 2).…”