The Significance of Thiol/Disulfide Homeostasis and Ischemia-Modified Albumin Levels in Assessing the Oxidative Stress in Obese Children and Adolescents

In this study, we analyzed thiol/ disulfide homeostasis and serum ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) levels for the first time in order to clarify and determine the oxidant/antioxidant balance in metabolically healthy and unhealthy children.This study included 196 obese children and 105 healthy volunteers between 4-18 years of age. The obese patients were divided into 2 groups: metabolically healthy obese (MHO) (n=58) and metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO) (n=138). Blood samples were obtained to analyze biochemical parameters, thiol/disulfide homeostasis, and IMA level.This study included 301 cases, 168 (55.8%) were females and 133 (44.2%) were males. The mean age of the control group was 11.62±3.13 years, the mean age of the MUO’s was 11.81±2.81years and the mean age of the MHO’s was 11.99±3.30 years. Natural thiol, total thiol levels and natural thiol/total thiol ratio were significantly lower in the metabolically unhealthy obese group than those in the control group; disulfide, disulfide/natural thiol, disulfide/total thiol and IMA levels, were statistically significantly higher in the metabolically unhealthy obese group than those in the control group.In conclusion, chronic inflammation due to oxidative stress induced by impaired metabolic parameters in the metabolically unhealthy obese children causes impairment in thiol redox homeostasis. Our data suggest that the increased oxidant status in obese children increases with increasing degrees of obesity and metabolic abnormalities. We believe that thiol/disulfide homeostasis and high serum ischemia-modified albumin levels may be reliable indicators of oxidant-antioxidant status in the metabolically unhealthy obese children.