Metformin use in children with obesity and normal glucose tolerance--effects on cardiovascular markers and intrahepatic fat.

Objective: To determine if metformin improves markers of inflammation, thrombosis, and intrahepatic fat contents in children with uncomplicated obesity.

Methods: Obese children with normal glucose tolerance but elevated highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and/or fibrinogen concentrations (>2 standard deviations) were randomized to structured diet/exercise or diet/exercise and metformin for 6 months. Blood samples, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry data, and liver magnetic resonance images were obtained.

Lifestyle intervention improves fitness independent of metformin in obese adolescents.

Purpose: Obesity in adolescence increases the risk for early adult cardiovascular disease. We recently showed that 6 months of diet, exercise, and metformin resulted in reductions in adiposity and that diet/exercise alone reduced proinflammatory factors and intrahepatic fat in pubertal children with uncomplicated obesity. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether changes in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) after 6 months of structured diet and exercise (DE) or DE plus metformin are related to the previously observed changes in adiposity, markers of inflammation, and intrahepatic fat.

Obesity without established comorbidities of the metabolic syndrome is associated with a proinflammatory and prothrombotic state, even before the onset of puberty in children.

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MS)-related comorbidities in obesity, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and glucose intolerance, are increasingly recognized in children, predisposing them to early cardiovascular disease.

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate whether markers of inflammation and prothrombosis are abnormal in obese children without established MS comorbidities across puberty, as compared with lean, age-matched controls.

Subjects And Methods: Obese children (body mass index >95%) with normal fasting glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides were recruited; lean controls (body mass index 10-75%) had no first-degree relatives with MS.