Objectives: Emerging evidence implicates an important role for visceral fat, particularly "creeping fat," in the pathogeneses and progression of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), specifically Crohn's disease (CD). In this study, we aimed to explore the association between body composition, adipocytokine profiles, and disease activity in pediatric CD patients.
Methods: We recruited patients with active and quiescent CD, aged 6-18, along with age matched healthy controls. Body composition was analyzed via bio-impedance analysis, and adipocytokines were assessed by ELISA-multiplex.
Results: Patients with active CD exhibited significantly elevated levels of adiponectin and resistin compared to healthy controls and patients in remission even upon adjustment for body composition indices. Leptin correlated only with body composition and not with disease activity. Patients with active CD had relatively higher percentage of body fat and total body fat than the other groups.
Conclusions: This study underscores the complex interactions between adipocytokine profiles and disease activity in CD. Further studies are needed to investigate the potential mechanistic role of adiponectin and resistin in CD pathogenesis.
Keywords: Adiponectin; Crohn’s disease; Pediatric; Resistin.
© 2025. The Author(s).