Background: It has been suggested that increased hepatic and intramuscular fat is associated with insulin resistance, and that increased pancreatic fat is related to impaired insulin secretion.
Objective: We postulated that in obese nondiabetic teenagers insulin levels would be directly related to increases in intramuscular and hepatic fat and inversely related to increases in pancreatic fat.
Materials and methods: MRI was used to assess the percentage of fat in the liver, muscle and pancreas in 15 healthy Mexican-American girls, 14–17 years old, with body mass indexes (BMIs) ranging from 17.7 kg/m
2 to 46 kg/m
2.
Results: Strong correlations were observed between BMI and fat content in the liver, muscle, and pancreas (
r2s between 0.50 and 0.89;
P<0.003). serum="" insulin="" levels="" were="" closely="" associated="" with="" fat="" measures="" in="" the="" muscle="" and="" liver="">0.003).>
r2s=0.63 and 0.29, and
P=0.001 and
P=0.023, respectively). In contrast to our hypothesis, fat content in the pancreas was also directly related to insulin secretion (
r2=0.74;
P=0.001).
Summary: We conclude that in nondiabetic teenagers, obesity is associated with an increased accumulation of fat in the pancreas without impairment of insulin secretion.
Keywords Obesity - Adolescence - Fat quantification - Pancreas - MR
Accepted for presentation at the SPR 2005 Meeting