According to the findings of the UC Davis study, fat stored in your buttock area, known as gluteal adipose tissue, actually secretes abnormal levels of chemerin and omentin-1 proteins. This can lead to inflammation and insulin resistance, which is a prediabetic condition that occurs when you have early metabolic syndrome. You have this syndrome if you have a group of risk factors, occurring together, which double your risk for heart disease and increase your risk for diabetes by five times at least.
Lead author of the study and a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and of internal medicine at UC Davis, Ishwarlal Jialal says, ‘Fat in the abdomen has long been considered the most detrimental to health, and gluteal fat was thought to protect against diabetes, heart disease and metabolic syndrome, but our research helps to dispel the myth that gluteal fat is ‘innocent.’ It also suggests that abnormal protein levels may be an early indicator to identify those at risk for developing metabolic syndrome.’
The results of the research were that, in gluteal fat ‘High chemerin levels correlated with four of the five characteristics of metabolic syndrome and may be a promising biomarker for metabolic syndrome,’ noted Jialal. ‘As it’s also an indicator of inflammation and insulin resistance, it could also emerge as part of a biomarker panel to define high-risk obesity states. The good news is that with weight loss, you can reduce chemerin levels along with the risk for metabolic syndrome.’
He concluded by urging that ‘Future large epidemiological studies should focus on evaluating the role of chemerin as a biomarker for the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in metabolic syndrome’.