Vitamin A and Obesity Associated Inflammation in Egyptian Obese Patients

Obesity is a multisystem condition associated with an elevated risk of type II diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cancer. Obesity is also associated with a state of chronic low grade inflammation as well as micronutrient deficiencies, as vitamin A deficiency. We thus aimed to investigate the correlation between the concentration of vitamin A, INF-?, as a marker of obesity associated inflammation, and the markers of high risk obesity in obese Egyptian patients. Serum vitamin A and serum IFN- ? were assessed in 32 obese individuals, as well as in 32 age and sex matched apparently healthy non obese individuals. We subdivided the obese patients into two groups: Group I: included 17 obese patients, with their BMI ranging from 39 to 60.8 kg/m2, and group II: which included 15 patients, of high risk obesity. Serum vitamin A was significantly decreased in cases in comparison to control group (P= 0.004), with the highest mean in the control group and the lowest mean in group II of cases, while serum IFN-? was significantly increased in obese cases in comparison to controls (P<0.001), with the lowest mean in the control group and the highest mean in group II of cases. There was also a high statistically significant inverse correlation (p=0.001) between vitamin A, IFN-?, BMI and WT. Conclusion: This study showed significant inverse correlation between the serum concentration of vitamin A and both BMI and IFN-? levels suggesting that vitamin A deficiency increases the risk of chronic inflammation associated with obesity and fat deposition .