{"doi":"10.1177/02601060251378557","title":"The mediating role of syndecan-4 in the negative association of healthy eating index with body mass index and android percent fat in premenopausal women","abstract":"Background: Diet quality has been implicated in the development of abdominal obesity. Yet, the molecular components involved in this relationship remain largely unknown. Aim: This pilot study examined whether syndecan-4 (SDC4) may serve as a molecular link between diet quality and abdominal obesity. Methods: Serum SDC4 levels were measured in 41 women (aged 21–45) who self-identified as African American or European American. Diet quality was assessed using the healthy eating index (HEI) score derived from a food frequency questionnaire, while android percent fat was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Regression and mediation analyses were performed to examine the data. Results: Significant ( p < 0.05) negative correlations were observed between HEI scores and both body mass index (BMI) and android percent fat. SDC4 emerged as a significant predictor of HEI and mediated the negative associations of HEI with BMI and android percent fat, independent of race and age. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that SDC4 may play a key mechanistic role in linking adherence to dietary recommendations with reductions in android adiposity.","journal":"Nutrition and Health","year":2025,"id":574962,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9516,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":273297,"name":"Douglas R. Moellering","orcid":"0000-0003-2040-4187","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":708992,"name":"María De Luca","orcid":"0000-0001-6345-7508","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":684834,"name":"Yenni E. Cedillo","orcid":"0000-0001-6177-1077","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":34,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:44.572630Z","pmid":"40956908","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}