Table 1.

Clinical characteristics of the study participants

Group	Controls	Obese patients	Obese patients after diet	Patients with chronic kidney disease
Number of subjects included	22	10	29	15
Inclusion criteria	BMI < 27 kg/m2 Age 18–65 years No clinical evidence of endocrine (including diabetes), cardiac, hepatic, mental, neoplastic or renal disease	BMI > 35 kg/m2 Age 18–65 years No clinical evidence of endocrine (including diabetes), cardiac, hepatic, mental, neoplastic or renal disease	BMI > 35 kg/m2 before dietary intervention Age 18–65 years >5-kg weight loss No clinical evidence of endocrine (including diabetes), cardiac, hepatic, mental, neoplastic or renal diseases	Treatment by peritoneal dialysis for end-stage renal failure No clinical evidence of endocrine (including diabetes), cardiac, hepatic, mental or neoplastic diseases
Dietary intervention	No dietary recommendation	No dietary recommendation	Low-calorie diet (1000–1200 kcal/day) for 3 months prior to blood collection. The patients were advised to remain on a high-protein, low-fat and low-carbohydrate diet (lean meat, eggs, fish, cottage cheese, yogurt, vegetables, grains, corn cereals, sponge cake, biscuits) and to avoid products containing sucrose	Normal-calorie diet recommended for dialyzed patients. The patients were advised to reduce potassium and phosphate intake. Protein intake was set at 1.2 g/kg/day