Low-grade inflammation in adulthood can be brought on by small size at birth and excessive weight gain during teenage years. This inflammation can lead to an increased risk of developing heart disease as well as other cardiovascular and metabolic disorders such as diabetes, a team of UK and Finnish researchers have found. The work, which is partly-EU-funded, was recently published in The European Heart Journal.

Previous studies have found links between specific markers of systemic inflammation and the development of diseases like coronary heart disease and stroke, and the presence or progress of atherosclerosis - a disease affecting arterial blood vessels.

In this latest study, the researchers chose to use one of these markers, a plasma protein called 'C-reactive protein' (CRP), which is secreted from the liver and is known to increase when body-wide inflammation occurs.

'Low grade inflammation is important because it has been associated with future cardiovascular events in many population studies over the past few years and it may play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease,' says Professor Paul Elliott, head of the Department Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine at Imperial College London, and co-author of the study.

Using data from the northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort study, the researchers monitored 5,840 people from before birth to the age of 31.They found that the smaller the baby at birth and the more weight put on during adolescence, the higher the levels of CRP in the liver of the adult.

Indeed, CRP levels in participants were 16% higher for every kilogram of lower birth weight, and 21% higher for every 10 centimetres they were shorter at birth. Furthermore, CRP levels increased by 16% for every extra point in body mass gained from 14 to 31 years old.

'We found that those who had lower birth weight, have higher CRP levels when they are adults, and also the other way round - people who had higher birth weight had lower CRP levels as adults,' explains Dr Ioanna Tzoulaki, lead author of the study and lecturer at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College London. 'The 'lower' and 'higher' CRP levels are relative to measurements in other participants in the study.'

According to Dr Tzoulaki, the findings suggest that the potential for developing heart disease is greater for individuals who are small at birth and gain a great deal of weight during their teenage years and early adulthood.

Ultimately, 'promoting healthier lifestyle in childhood and adolescence, leading to weight stabilisation might be a crucial step in establishing a low cardiovascular risk profile in young adults,' say the authors of the study.

In addition to Imperial College London, researchers from the Finnish National Public Health Institute and Finland's University of Oulu, as well as the Northwest Institute for Bio-Health Informatics in the UK participated in the study.

EU support for the research came from the European Birth-Lifecourse-Studies (EURO-BLCS) project, which received funding under the 'Life Quality' thematic area of the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5).

EURO-BLCS project

Source: Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS)