Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 5 pp 6702—6711
The impact of visceral obesity on chronic constipation, inflammation, immune function and cognitive function in patients with inflammatory bowel disease
- 1 Department of Anorectal Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Received: September 25, 2020 Accepted: December 23, 2020 Published: February 17, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.202526How to Cite
Copyright: © 2021 Wan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Objective: Obesity has gained attention among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The impact of visceral obesity on chronic constipation, inflammation, immune function and cognition after diagnosis of IBD is still unknown.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 150 IBD patients. Patients’ visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) were measured and were grouped according to visceral obesity. The potential impact of visceral obesity on cognitive function were evaluated using Mini-Mental State Examination. We evaluated patients’ incidence of chronic constipation, levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), T cells and body mass index in two groups.
Results: The prevalence of visceral obesity was 51% (37 out of 72) for Crohn’s disease (CD) patients and 26% for UC patients (20 out of 78 patients). CD patients with visceral obesity has higher incidence of chronic constipation (81% vs. 57%, P = 0.028), higher IL-6 levels (15.28 pg/ml vs. 9.429 pg/ml, P = 0.007) and lower CD4+ T cells (32.7% vs. 44.0%, P < 0.001). VAT/SAT ratio is associated with BMI (P < 0.001).
Conclusions: IBD patients had high risks of visceral obesity. CD Patients with visceral obesity had higher prevalence of chronic constipation, higher inflammation levels, decreased immune function.