Effect of gender and adiposity on in vivo vascular function in young African Americans.
The relationship between obesity and high blood pressure is not as strong among African Americans (AA) as compared to Caucasians. We designed the current study to determine the effect of adiposity on vascular endothelial function (a harbinger of hypertension) among young healthy AA without additional cardiovascular disease risk factors. A total of 108 AA subjects (46 women) between the ages of 18 and 45 years were recruited. All the subjects were normotensive, nonsmokers, and normoglycemic. Anthropometric and cardiovascular disease risk factor measurements (lipid, insulin resistance, and inflammatory markers) were obtained. Vascular endothelial function was measured by brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD). Adiposity distribution was measured by using magnetic resonance imaging scan. There were no gender differences in age and levels of blood pressure, lipids, insulin resistance, and inflammatory markers. Women had higher total body fat percentage and higher peripheral adiposity compared to men. We observed that total and central adiposity did not correlate significantly with brachial artery FMD in women (r = -0.12 and r = 0.23, respectively; P = NS). However, in men, waist circumference was positively associated with FMD (r = 0.3, P ≤ .05). Hyperemic flow was negatively correlated significantly with total and central adiposity in men (r = -0.34 and r = -0.48, respectively; P < .05), but not in women (r = -0.26 and r = 0.03, respectively; P = NS). Our study suggests that increased adiposity may pose greater risk to AA men compared to AA women by adversely affecting resistance vessel function (as measured by hyperemic flow). Larger studies are necessary to validate these findings.
['Dass|Namrata|N|', 'Kilakkathi|Sindhu|S|', 'Obi|Brittaney|B|', 'Moosreiner|Andrea|A|', 'Krishnaswami|Shanthi|S|', 'Widlansky|Michael E|ME|', 'Kidambi|Srividya|S|']
D050154:Adiposity D000328:Adult D001741:African Americans D001783:Blood Flow Velocity D001794:Blood Pressure D015992:Body Mass Index D001916:Brachial Artery D004730:Endothelium, Vascular D005260:Female D006801:Humans D006973:Hypertension D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging D008297:Male D012307:Risk Factors D012737:Sex Factors D014481:United States D014655:Vascular Resistance D055105:Waist Circumference
obesity high blood pressure risk factors women Clinical studies race and ethnicity