Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Feb;21(2):267-275.
doi: 10.1111/dom.13513. Epub 2018 Sep 21.

Association of abdominal muscle composition with prediabetes and diabetes: The CARDIA study

Andrea Granados  1 , Achamyeleh Gebremariam  2 , Samuel S Gidding  3 , James G Terry  4 , John Jeffrey Carr  4 , Lyn M Steffen  5 , David R Jacobs Jr  5 , Joyce M Lee  2   6   7
Affiliations

Association of abdominal muscle composition with prediabetes and diabetes: The CARDIA study

Andrea Granados et al. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2019 Feb.

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the relationship of abdominal muscle lean tissue and adipose tissue volumes with prediabetes and diabetes.

Research design and methods: We measured abdominal muscle composition in 3170 participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study who underwent computed tomography (CT) at Year 25 of follow-up (ages, 43-55 years). Multinomial regression analysis was used to evaluate the associations of CT-measured intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT), lean muscle tissue (lean) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) volumes with diabetes at any point during the CARDIA study, newly detected prediabetes, prior history of prediabetes, and normal glucose tolerance. Models were adjusted for potential confounding factors: age, sex, race, height, smoking status, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, cardiorespiratory fitness and study centre.

Results: Higher IMAT, lean and VAT volumes were all separately associated with a higher prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes. Inclusion of VAT volume in models with both IMAT volume and lean volume attenuated the association of IMAT with both prediabetes and diabetes, but higher lean volume retained its association with prediabetes and diabetes. Individuals in the highest IMAT quartile, coupled with VAT in its lower three quartiles, had a higher prevalence of diabetes, but not of prediabetes, than those with both IMAT and VAT in their respective lower three quartiles. Adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness did not substantially change the findings.

Conclusion: Higher IMAT volume was associated with a higher prevalence of diabetes even after adjustment for VAT volume. However, further study is warranted to understand the complicated relationship between abdominal muscle and adipose tissues.

Keywords: body composition; glycaemic control; type 2 diabetes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest. All authors have contributed to the manuscript in significant ways and have reviewed and agreed upon the manuscript content.

Figures

Figure 1–
Figure 1–
Enrollment and follow up of the study participants
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Carnagarin R, Dharmarajan AM, Dass CR. Molecular aspects of glucose homeostasis in skeletal muscle - A focus on the molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2015;417:52–62. doi:10.1016/j.mce.2015.09.004. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Boyko EJ, Fujimoto WY, Leonetti DL, Newell-Morris L. Visceral adiposity and risk of type 2 diabetes: a prospective study among Japanese Americans. Diabetes Care. 2000;23(4):465–471. - PubMed
    1. Astrup A, Finer N. Redefining type 2 diabetes: “diabesity” or “obesity dependent diabetes mellitus”? Obes Rev. 2000;1(2):57–59. - PubMed
    1. N IJ, T AT, A CR, et al. Dysfunctional adiposity and the risk of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in obese adults. JAMA. 2012;308(11):1150–1159. doi:10.1001/2012.jama.11132. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Boettcher M, Machann J, Stefan N, et al. Intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT): association with other adipose tissue compartments and insulin sensitivity. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009;29(6):1340–1345. doi:10.1002/jmri.21754. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms