Natural Antibiotics: New Biomarkers of Childhood Obesity

We performed a cross-sectional and longitudinal study in asymptomatic prepubertal Caucasian children. Plasma -defensins and BPI (ELISA), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, systolic blood pressure (SBP), carotid intima media thickness (cIMT), HOMA-IR and HMW-adiponectin were cross-sectionally assessed in 250 children at age 7 years (50% girls, 21% overweight subjects). -defensins and BPI were also longitudinally assessed in a subset of these children (n=89) at age ~10 years (49% girls, 0% overweight subjects).