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This Mini-Review describes sex differences in 66 quantitative characteristics of the brain and body measured in a community-based sample of 1,024 adolescents 12-18 years of age, members of the Saguenay Youth Study. Using an extensive phenotyping protocol, we have obtained measures in a number of domains, including brain structure, cognition, mental health, substance use, body composition, metabolism, cardiovascular reactivity, and life style. For each measure, we provide estimates of effect size (Cohen's d) and sex-specific correlations with age (Pearson R). In total 59 of the 66 characteristics showed sex differences (at a nominal P

Background Obesity is associated with cardiometabolic disturbances, which may have significant implications for musculoskeletal health and exercise tolerance. Objective We sought to determine the association between muscle structure, function, and metabolism in adolescents across the weight spectrum. Methods This cross-sectional case–control study included overweight and obese participants (n = 24) 8–18 years of age with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 85th percentile for age and gender, and non-obese participants (n = 24) with a BMI

Objective To study the relationships between parameters of glucose and insulin metabolism and visceral and abdominal ectopic fat in youth. Methods A cross sectional study of 50 children (24 females), 8-18 years old. Anthropometrics, body composition, blood-work and visceral and ectopic fat by magnetic resonance imaging were assessed. Insulin secretion, insulin sensitivity and beta cell function were calculated from an oral glucose tolerance test. Results BMI z-scores ranged between −1.3 and 4.5. The hepatic fat fraction (HFF) ranged between 0 and 36% and pancreatic fat fraction (PFF) between 0 and 14%. Visceral fat, HFF and PFF were associated with clinical and biochemical metabolic abnormalities, and correlated with markers of insulin sensitivity (r = −0.60, P

In industrialized countries, prenatal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking (PEMCS) is the most common environmental insult to the fetus. Here, we tested the hypothesis that PEMCS amplifies accumulation of abdominal fat during the accelerated weight gain occurring in late puberty. This hypothesis was tested in 508 adolescents (12-18 years, 237 exposed prenatally to maternal cigarette smoking) in whom subcutaneous and intra-abdominal fat were quantified with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We found that, in early puberty, exposed and nonexposed adolescents did not differ in MRI-based measures of adiposity. In late puberty, on the other hand, exposed compared with nonexposed adolescents demonstrated markedly higher quantities of both subcutaneous fat (by 26%, P = 0.004) and intra-abdominal fat (by 33%, P = 0.001). These group differences remained virtually unchanged after adjusting for sex and potential confounders, including birth weight and breastfeeding. As such, our results suggest that PEMCS may represent a major risk factor for the development of abdominal obesity at the later stages of puberty.