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Lipids and cardiovascular/metabolic health

Lipid, lipoprotein and apolipoprotein profiles in European adolescents and its associations with gender, biological maturity and body fat—The HELENA Study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 66, pages 727–735 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

To provide a detailed lipid profile of a European adolescent population considering age, gender, biological maturity, body mass index (BMI), fat mass (FM) and percentage body fat (BF).

Subjects/Methods:

Within Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA), a cross-sectional study was conducted to determine fasting serum concentrations of lipids, lipoproteins and apolipoproteins in 1076 adolescents aged 12.5–17.49 years from ten European centres.

Results:

All serum lipid concentrations were significantly higher in girls than in boys. In boys, age was negatively correlated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and total cholesterol (TC), and positively associated with triacylglycerides (TAG) (P<0.01) whereas no significant associations were observed in girls. Biological maturity was negatively associated with TC, HDL-, low-density lipoprotein (LDL)- and non-HDL cholesterol in boys (all P<0.05) and negatively correlated with HDL-cholesterol in girls (P<0.05). BMI, FM and BF were significantly correlated with HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, apolipoprotein (apo) A1, apoB and TAG in both boys and girls.

Conclusions:

The lipid profile in adolescents is strongly determined by gender. Biological maturity, FM and percentage BF contribute to the variance in lipid concentrations and should be considered in future evaluations of lipid status.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Anke Carstensen for analyses of the routine clinical laboratory parameters at the University Hospital in Bonn, Joachim Kunert and Laura Barrios for statistical support.

Author information

Author notes

  1. A Spinneker, S Egert, M González-Gross, C Breidenassel, U Albers, B Stoffel-Wagner, I Huybrechts, Y Manios, E Venneria, D Molnar, K Widhalm, L Moreno and P Stehle: See Appendix.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Ernährungs- und Lebensmittelwissenschaften, Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    A Spinneker, S Egert, M González-Gross, C Breidenassel & P Stehle

  2. Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte-INEF, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    M González-Gross & U Albers

  3. Grupo EFFECTS 262. Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain

    M González-Gross

  4. Institut für Klinische Chemie und Pharmakologie, Universitätsklinikum Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    B Stoffel-Wagner

  5. Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    I Huybrechts

  6. Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece

    Y Manios

  7. INRAN—National Research Institute for Food and Nutrition, Rome, Italy

    E Venneria

  8. Department of Paediatrics, Medical Faculty, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary

    D Molnar

  9. Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    K Widhalm

  10. GENUD (Growth, Exercise, Nutrition and Development) Research Group, Escuela Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    L Moreno

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on behalf of the HELENA Study group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P Stehle.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Appendix

Appendix

The HELENA study was supported financially by the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contract FOODCT-2005-007034) and by the Spanish Ministry of Health: Maternal, Child Health and Development Network (number RD08/0072), the Spanish Ministry of Education (AGL2007-29784-E/ALI; AP-2005-3827) and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (CH/018/2008). The content of this paper reflects only the authors' views, and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

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Spinneker, A., Egert, S., González-Gross, M. et al. Lipid, lipoprotein and apolipoprotein profiles in European adolescents and its associations with gender, biological maturity and body fat—The HELENA Study. Eur J Clin Nutr 66, 727–735 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.222

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