Racial differences in urinary F2-isoprostane levels and the cross-sectional association with BMI

Levels of four urinary F(2)-isoprostanes (F(2)-IsoPs) were examined in a large sample of the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study (IRAS) multiethnic cohort: 237 African Americans (AAs), 342 non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs), and 275 Hispanic Whites (HWs). F(2)-IsoP isomers – iPF2a-III, 2,3-dinor-iPF2a-III, iPF2a-VI, and 8,12-iso-iPF2a-VI – were measured in 854 urine samples using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry detection. In AAs, levels of all four F(2)-IsoPs were lower compared with NHWs and HWs (p-values < 0.05). When stratified by BMI, this gap was not observed among participants with normal BMI but appeared among overweight and increased among obese participants. Examining the slopes of the associations between BMI and F(2)-IsoPs showed no association between these variables among AAs (p-values > 0.2), and positive associations among Caucasians (p-values < 0.05). Taking into account that positive cross-sectional associations between systemic F(2)-IsoP levels and BMI have been consistently demonstrated in many study populations, the lack of such an association among AAs reveals a new facet of racial/ethnic differences in obesity-related risk profiles.