C reactive protein and TNF alpha in obese and none-obese females and their relation in obese subjects

Objective: It is generally accepted that that low-grade systemic inflammation associated with obesity plays a key role in the pathogenic mechanism of chronic diseases, although the molecular mechanisms for this are less understood. The aim of this study was to compare serum CRP and TNF-α between middle-aged females who are obese or normal weight and to determine their association with each other in obese subjects.Methods: For this purpose, fifteen middle-aged obese females and fifteen non-obese females (normal weight) were participated in present study. A venous blood sample was collected from all the subjects who came after a 12-h overnight fast between the hours of 8 to 9 a.m. for measuring serum CRP and TNF-α. An Independent sample T-test was used to compare all variables between 2 groups. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used to evaluate the correlations between serum CRP with TNF-α in obese subjects. A p-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.Results: Serum CRP levels were significantly higher in obese subjects in comparison to normal weight subjects (p = 0.000). TNF-α level in obese females were also significantly higher than those of non-obese subjects (p = 0.004). However, no significant correlation was observed between CRP and TNF-α in obese subjects (p = 0.99).Conclusion: our results confirm that obesity is associated with systemic inflammation in non-trained middle-aged women but further studies are still required to determine the molecular mechanisms between inflammatory markers in this subject.