Association between peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets, insulin resistance and endothelial dysfunction in males with abdominal obesity and metabolic syndrome

The components of the metabolic syndrome are associated with endothelial dysfunction and immune disorders, but the features of cell immunity in abdominal obesity and metabolic syndrome remain ambiguous, and no unified concept regarding a mechanism for developing immune disorders has been proposed. Here we examined peripheral blood lymphocyte subset composition in males with abdominal obesity and metabolic syndrome as well as their relationship with insulin resistance, visceral adipose tissue dysfunction and endothelial dysfunction. There were enrolled 124 males aged 18-45 years. Patients were divided into 4 groups: 1 group – males without abdominal obesity and metabolic syndrome components; 2 group – males with abdominal obesity; 3 group – males with abdominal obesity and one metabolic syndrome component; 4 group – males with metabolic syndrome. The level of serum leptin, adiponectin, TFPI, PAI-I, uric acid, homocysteine, angiotensin II, and endothelin (1-21) was measured followed by calculating HOMA-IR, Tg/HDL, TyG, and VAI. Lymphocyte subset frequency was determined by flow cytometry (Beckman Coulter, USA). Group 2 vs Group 1 patients showed no significant differences in study parameters. In Group 3, count of CD3⁺CD25⁺ and CD3⁺HLA-DR⁺T lymphocytes was increased, whereas the TyG index was associated with percentage of T helper cells. In Group 4, males were found to have decreased percentage of lymphocytes as well as increased frequency of activated CD3⁺HLA-DR⁺ lymphocytes as compared to Group 1. A relationship between serum leptin level percentage of lymphocytes was found. Tg/HDL, TyG and VAI in metabolic syndrome were associated with count of CD3⁺CD4⁺ lymphocytes. Arterial hypertension co-found in patients with metabolic syndrome correlated with count of NK cells.