Back to Search Results

Association of measures of body fat with serum alpha-tocopherol and its metabolites in middle-aged individuals.

Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; NIHR Great Ormond Street Biomedical Research Centre, Great Ormond Street Hospital and UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom. Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. NIHR Great Ormond Street Biomedical Research Centre, Great Ormond Street Hospital and UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Einthoven Laboratory for Experimental Vascular Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. Electronic address: r.noordam@lumc.nl.

Nutrition, metabolism, and cardiovascular diseases : NMCD. 2021;(8):2407-2415
Full text from:

Other resources

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The accumulation of fat increases the formation of lipid peroxides, which are partly scavenged by alpha-tocopherol (α-TOH). Here, we aimed to investigate the associations between different measures of (abdominal) fat and levels of urinary α-TOH metabolites in middle-aged individuals. METHODS AND RESULTS In this cross-sectional analysis in the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity study (N = 511, 53% women; mean [SD] age of 55 [6.1] years), serum α-TOH and α-TOH metabolites from 24-h urine were measured as alpha-tocopheronolactone hydroquinone (α-TLHQ, oxidized) and alpha-carboxymethyl-hydroxychroman (α-CEHC, enzymatically converted) using liquid-chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Body mass index and total body fat were measured, and abdominal subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue (aSAT and VAT) were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging. Using multivariable-adjusted linear regression analyses, we analysed the associations of BMI, TBF, aSAT and VAT with levels of urinary α-TOH metabolites, adjusted for confounders. We observed no evidence for associations between body fat measures and serum α-TOH. Higher BMI and TBF were associated with lower urinary levels of TLHQ (0.95 [95%CI: 0.90, 1.00] and 0.94 [0.88, 1.01] times per SD, respectively) and with lower TLHQ relative to CEHC (0.93 [0.90, 0.98] and 0.93 [0.87, 0.98] times per SD, respectively). We observed similar associations for VAT (TLHQ: 0.94 [0.89, 0.99] times per SD), but not for aSAT. CONCLUSIONS Opposite to our research hypothesis, higher abdominal adiposity was moderately associated with lower levels of oxidized α-TOH metabolites, which might reflect lower vitamin E antioxidative activity in individuals with higher abdominal fat instead.