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Obesity is a low-grade chronic inflammatory state, in which a cytokine chemerin with its immunometabolic modulation has an important role. We aimed to study in a healthy population relationships between serum chemerin levels, lifestyle choices and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessed volumes of abdominal visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous (SAT) adipose tissues, which have different cytokine expression profiles. Overall, 73 healthy participants undertook lifestyle questionnaire and underwent anthropometric measurements along with MRI scanning of abdominal SAT and VAT. Furthermore, complete blood count was determined along with chemerin and fibrinogen serum levels. Regression model for prediction of chemerin serum levels was built after controlling for sex, age and anthropometric measures. Median serum chemerin was 141 (125-195) ng/mL. Serum chemerin had a moderate positive correlation with SAT and VAT volumes. The two most important predictors of chemerin levels were MRI detected SAT and thigh circumference. Independently, chemerin levels were associated with smoking, preference of salty food, and favoring flavor/simplicity of preparation over nutritional value of the food. Serum chemerin seems to be more strongly correlated with the volume of abdominal SAT than VAT, with certain lifestyle choices influencing chemerin levels independently of abdominal fat.

Aim: To establish allele frequencies and genetic parameters in eastern Croatia population and to compare them with those in other populations. The second aim was to compare the genetic profiles obtained with different forensic kits amplifying the same genetic markers., Methods: Blood samples of 217 unrelated individuals from eastern Croatia were genotyped using AmpFlSTR NGM kit. Allele distribution and other genetic parameters were determined for 15 short tandem repeat (STR) loci, including the 5 loci recently added to the European Standard Set (ESS) of STR loci (D10S1248, D22S1045, D2S441, D1S1656, and D12S391). Ninety-six samples underwent duplicate analysis using AmpFlSTR Identifiler kit., Results: Power of discrimination was highest for the two new ESS loci, D1S1656 (0.97254) and D12S391 (0.97339). Comparison of allele frequencies for 5 new ESS loci in our sample with previously published population data showed a significant difference from Maghreb population on D2S441 and from American Caucasian population on D1S1656. Comparison of allele frequencies for standard 10 STR loci with all the neighboring populations' data showed a significant difference only from Albanian population (on D2S1338, D18S51, and TH01). Discordant genotypes were observed in 5 (5.2%) samples at a single locus when amplified with both AmpFlSTR NGM and AmpFlSTR Identifiler kit., Conclusion: New ESS STR loci are highly polymorphic and short, and therefore very useful for the analysis of challenging forensic samples. DNA samples purposed for establishing databases should be routinely amplified in duplicate.