Alkaline phosphatase and percentage body fat predict circulating C-reactive protein in premenopausal women

Abstract

C-reactive protein (CRP) is considered a marker of inflammation, which is a risk factor for many chronic diseases. However, determinants of CRP remain unclear and were studied in a strictly defined cohort of healthy premenopausal women (n=233) using multiple regression models. Independent predictors of serum CRP (model R²=0.59) were percentage body fat, serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP), sex hormone-binding globulin and white blood cell count. The close association between CRP and ALP suggests that enzymatic activity of ALP may be important for the anti-inflammatory effects of CRP, which should be confirmed with additional studies.

Key words::

• Obesity
• SHBG
• insulin
• liver enzymes
• white blood cells

Acknowledgements

We thank the nursing staff of the General Clinical Research Center for their assistance, the study subjects and coordinators for their dedication, Mouyong Liu for the development of the research database and Yimei Han and Laura Ray for their biostatistical assistance. We are also very grateful to Dr Marinel M. Ammenheuser for her critical review of the manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The research was supported by US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command DADM17-01-1-0417 (the content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred; the US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, 820 Chandler Street, Fort Detrick, MD 21702-5014 is the awarding and administering acquisition office), and National Institute of Health (NIH) Grants National Center for Research Resources M01-RR-00073 and 1UL1RR029876-01, National Cancer Institute CA95545, CA65628, and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences ES006676. The study is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov and the identifier is NCT00204477 and the clinical trial registration date is September 9, 2005. The authors have nothing to disclose.