The purpose of this study was to evaluate the contribution of intra-abdominal adiposity to age-related differences in inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) in 208 men from the Québec Family Study. Overall, intra-abdominal adipose tissue accumulation was positively correlated with age (r=0.51, P<0.0001) as well as with plasma CRP (r=0.39, P<0.0001), IL-6 (r=0.32, P<0.0001) and TNF-a (r=0.14, P<0.05) levels. A significant relationship was also observed between age and the measured inflammatory biomarkers. After matching for intra-abdominal adipose tissue, differences in CRP and IL-6 levels were eliminated, a finding which suggests that the age-related variation in CRP and IL-6 is largely explained by differences in intra-abdominal adiposity. Because inflammation is an important component of the dysmetabolic profile of patients with type 2 diabetes, these results highlight, once again, the importance of visceral adiposity.
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