Background: Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is an intracellular enzyme
that has an important immunomodulator function. Human inflammatory
response promotes upregulation of IDO level in blood. This may lead to
suppression of inflammation in atherosclerotic vessel wall and consequently
may slow the progression of the disease. Previous studies have shown that
IDO activity correlates with early signs of atherosclerosis especially in
females but is not an atherosclerosis-specific marker.
Materials and methods: IDO levels were measured from females
(n=544; weight 40.5–134.4 kg) in 2001 along with several risk factors for
atherosclerosis. Follow-up risk factor measurements were performed in
2007 and 2011. Here we aimed to elucidate the relationship between IDO
measurements from 2001 and several atherosclerotic risk factors from 2007
and 2011 by using statistical analysis from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young
Finns Study patient cohort.
Results: After age standardization, IDO correlated significantly with BMI
(p=0.0008), waist (p=0.0009) and logarithmically modified triglycerides
(p=0.0488) and CRP (p=0.0014) in female samples (n=434) from 2007.
Furthermore, significant correlation was found between IDO, BMI and waist
(p=0.0007 and 0.0063, respectively) in female samples (n=384) from 2011.
In detailed statistical analysis, IDO forecasted obesity in females (n=431) in
10-year follow-up study.
Conclusions: It is concluded that IDO activity promotes obesity – a wellcharacterized
risk factor for diabetes and atherosclerosis – in females.