Acanthosis nigricans as a composite marker of cardiometabolic risk and its complex association with obesity and insulin resistance in Mexican American children

Authors

Juan Carlos Lopez Alvarenga, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
Geetha Chittoor
Solomon F. D. Paul
Sobha Puppala
Vidya S. Farook, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Sharon P. Fowler
Roy G. Resendez, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Joselin Hernandez-Ruiz
Alvaro Diaz-Badillo, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
David Salazar
Doreen D. Garza
Donna M. Lehman
Srinivas Mummidi, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Rector Arya, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Christopher Jenkinson, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
John Blangero, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Ravindranath Duggirala, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-15-2020

Abstract

Aim

Acanthosis nigricans (AN) is a strong correlate of obesity and is considered a marker of insulin resistance (IR). AN is associated with various other cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs). However, the direct causal relationship of IR with AN in obesity has been debated. Therefore, we aimed to examine the complex causal relationships among the troika of AN, obesity, and IR in Mexican Americans (MAs).

Methods

We used data from 670 non-diabetic MA children, aged 6–17 years (49% girls). AN (prevalence 33%) severity scores (range 0–5) were used as a quasi-quantitative trait (AN-q) for analysis. We used the program SOLAR for determining phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between AN-q and CMRFs (e.g., BMI, HOMA-IR, lipids, blood pressure, hs-C-reactive protein (CRP), and Harvard physical fitness score (PFS)). The genetic and environmental correlations were subsequently used in mediation analysis (AMOS program). Model comparisons were made using goodness-of-fit indexes.

Results

Heritability of AN-q was 0.75 (p

Conclusion

Our study suggests that obesity explains the association of IR with AN, but no causal relationship between IR and AN in Mexican American children.

Comments

© 2020 Lopez-Alvarenga et al

Recommended Citation

Lopez-Alvarenga JC, Chittoor G, Paul SFD, Puppala S, Farook VS, Fowler SP, et al. (2020) Acanthosis nigricans as a composite marker of cardiometabolic risk and its complex association with obesity and insulin resistance in Mexican American children. PLoS ONE 15(10): e0240467. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240467

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

PLoS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0240467

Academic Level

faculty

Mentor/PI Department

Office of Human Genetics