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CALL FOR PAPERS
Insulin Resistance and the Cardiometabolic Syndrome: Adipose Tissue and Skeletal Muscle Factors
1Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 8090-Institute of Biology, Pasteur Institute, Lille, France; 2Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale ERIT-M 0106, Lille, France; 3Metabolic Research Laboratory, Clínica Universitaria, University of Navarra, Pamplona, and CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain; and 4Genomic Medicine, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, London, United Kingdom
Submitted 27 December 2007 ; accepted in final form 30 April 2008
| ABSTRACT |
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), pre-B-cell colony enhancing factor 1 (PBEF1) (or visfatin), glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1 (soluble) (GPD1), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), fatty acid binding protein 4, adipocyte (FABP4), and hypoxia-inducible factor 1
were determined by quantitative real-time PCR. CD14 and IL-18 were overexpressed in omental adipose tissue compared with the subcutaneous depot, irrespective of the subject's obesity or diabetes status. A significant decrease of LPL, GPD1, and leptin expression was observed in omental tissue, and an inverse correlation between expression of CD14 and IL-18 and that of PPAR
, LPL, and FABP4 was observed. The underexpression of omental lipogenic markers was more accentuated in the presence of glucose intolerance. Furthermore, adiponectin and SREBP1 expression was also significantly decreased in omental tissue of type 2 diabetic patients. PBEF1 and HIF1
expression remained comparable in all samples. Therefore, in humans, inflammation is increased in the omental depot, as evidenced by CD14 and IL-18 expression. In this localization, the inflammatory state is associated with a decreased expression of lipogenic markers, which is more pronounced in diabetic subjects. obesity; CD14; IL-18; subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue; diabetes
or IL-6, have been shown to induce insulin resistance and are thought to link obesity and type 2 diabetes (31). We recently demonstrated in the 3T3-L1 preadipocyte cell line that an inflammatory environment is able to maintain the preadipocyte status (25). In this context, preadipocytes that are phenotypically related to macrophages (6) with high proinflammatory features are impaired in their differentiation, and a decrease in the expression of lipogenic enzymes is observed. These results suggest that in adipose tissue, the inflammatory environment induces chemokine secretion and leukocyte recruitment, which disturbs adipogenesis and perpetuates proinflammatory adipokine secretion. Thus, a vicious circle of chronic inflammation is established that leads to insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome.
Epidemiological studies have clearly shown a relationship between intra-abdominal fat amount and metabolic abnormalities (4, 10, 26). Whether visceral fat is the major effector of the metabolic syndrome is still discussed (15).
Our purpose was to analyze in paired human adipose tissue samples from the subcutaneous and omental depots the expression of two inflammation markers (CD14 and IL-18) and to characterize in the same samples the expression of several markers of adipogenesis and lipogenesis. The differences in CD14 and IL-18 in omental and subcutaneous adipose tissue served to assess depot-specific differences in the inflammatory state. We hypothesized that, as we had previously shown in cell culture (25), inflammation might interact with lipogenesis also in human tissues. Correlation between genes and enzymes involved in lipogenesis and inflammation was therefore studied. Because hypoxia has been shown in an adipocyte culture model to raise inflammation-related adipokines, such as IL6 and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), and to decrease adiponectin (38), inclusion of hypoxia as an underlying factor involved in elicitation of inflammation was further taken into consideration. HIF is a heterodimer consisting of the O2-regulated subunit, HIF-1
, and the constitutively expressed aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator, HIF-1β. Under hypoxic conditions, HIF-1
is stable and accumulates and migrates to the nucleus where it binds to HIF-1β to form a complex that stimulates the expression of genes involved in angiogenesis, anaerobic metabolism, vascular permeability, and inflammation (17). For this reason, HIF-1
is considered as a marker of hypoxia level, and its expression was analyzed to test its implication in inflammation in our samples. Our study was designed to analyze these hypotheses in relation to the common setting of obesity but under the different metabolic spectrum encompassing normoglycemia and insulin resistance and glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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30 kg/m2, respectively]. Obese patients were further subclassified into three groups, according to the recently established diagnostic thresholds (based on an oral glucose tolerance test, OGTT) for diabetes and lesser degrees of impaired glucose regulation [normoglycemia: fasting plasma glucose concentration (FPG) <100 mg/dl and 2-h PG <140 mg/dl after OGTT; impaired glucose tolerance (IGT); FPG > 100 mg/dl and < 125 mg/dl or 2-h PG between 140 and 199 mg/dl after OGTT; T2DM: FPG
126 mg/dl or 2-h PG
200 mg/dl after OGTT]. The lean group included six patients undergoing laparoscopic abdominal surgery due to benign diseases, such as cholecystectomy, while the 18 obese patients strictly met the criteria for bariatric surgery. In both lean and obese groups, surgery was performed by the minimally invasive laparoscopic approach. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects, and the experimental design was approved from an ethical and scientific standpoint by the Hospitals' Ethical Committee responsible for each research project. All patients underwent a preoperative evaluation, including medical history and physical examination. Blood assays. Plasma samples were obtained by venipuncture after an overnight fast. Plasma glucose was analyzed by an automated analyzer (Roche/Hitachi Modular P800), with quantification based on the enzymatic colorimetric reactions described by Trinder (36). Total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations were determined by enzymatic spectrophotometric methods (Boehringer Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany). Insulin concentrations were determined by means of an enzyme-amplified chemiluminescence assay (IMMULITE, Diagnostic Products, Los Angeles, CA). Leptin was measured by the double-antibody RIA method (Linco Research, St. Charles, MO). The relevant clinical and metabolic characteristics of the 24 subjects are shown in Table 1. No statistically significant differences for age between all groups or for BMI among the obese subgroups were observed. Furthermore, no significant differences in clinical values were observed according to the patient's origin among obese groups.
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Relative quantitative real-time PCR.
The relative quantification of mRNA was performed with a quantitative RT-PCR assay. One microgram of total RNA was transcribed into cDNA using the cDNA Archive Kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). Each cDNA sample was analyzed for gene expression by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) using the fluorescent TaqMan 5'-nuclease assay on an Applied Biosystems 7900HT sequence detection system. The TaqMan RT-PCR was performed using 2x TaqMan Master Mix and 20x premade TaqMan gene expression assays (Applied Biosystems). Both isoforms of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR
; g1 and g2) and sterol regulatory element binding trascription factor 1 (SREBP1; 1a and 1c) were detected in our assay. Analysis was performed with the ABI 7900HT SDS 2.2 Software. GAPDH was used as a reference gene. GAPDH expression in our samples exhibited a coefficient of variation of 0.022 in subcutaneous fat and of 0.014 in the omental depot. Furthermore, no significant differences in GAPDH mRNA levels between samples of the different phenotypical groups were observed by the Kruskal-Wallis test (P = 0.276). 18S rRNA was also tested as a reference gene, but it exhibited a larger coefficient of variation (0.074) in these samples. The data are given as the ratio of the levels of the target gene mRNA to that of GAPDH mRNA after defining constant threshold and baseline values for a given gene for all of the plates in the ABI RQ Manager Software.
Statistical analysis. Given the relatively small sample size in each phenotypic group, the relative quantitative real-time PCR data are presented as medians (SD). The statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS software package (14.0.2; Chicago, IL). According to sample size, the test on ranks was performed, and two-tailed exact P values are given. The mRNA levels between lean and obese patients were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U-test. Comparisons of mRNA levels between subcutaneous and omental adipose tissues were performed using the paired Wilcoxon test. Correlations between continuous variables were determined using the nonparametric Spearman's rank correlation. The threshold of significance was set at P < 0.05.
| RESULTS |
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, pre-B-cell colony enhancing factor 1 (PBEF1)] and lipogenesis [glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1 (soluble) (GPD1), lipoprotein lipase (LPL), fatty acid binding protein 4, adipocyte (FABP4)] was performed. Leptin, LPL, GPD1, ADIPOQ, and SREBP1 were underexpressed in omental adipose tissue, while PPAR
, PBEF1, and FABP4 expression did not display significant differences according to depot location (Table 2).
As would be expected from PPAR
's key role in adipogenesis regulation, a significant positive correlation between its expression and that of LPL, ADIPOQ, GPD1, FABP4, and SREBP1 in both fat depots was observed (data not shown). In omental adipose tissue LPL, FABP4, and PPAR
were inversely correlated with CD14 and IL-18 expression (Fig. 1). This inverse correlation with CD14 was not dependent on the obese state and remained significant in lean subjects for LPL (P = 0.005) and PPAR
(P = 0.042). Only PPAR
remained inversely correlated to IL-18 (P = 0.019) in lean subjects.
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Depot-specific effect of glycemic state on gene expression in obesity. The expression of adipogenic enzymes in omental fat in the context of obesity was then analyzed in each group of glycemic control. When Wilcoxon paired analysis was performed in each phenotypic group of obese subjects, a depot-specific leptin, LPL, GPD1, ADIPOQ, and SREBP1 gene underexpression was more pronounced in diabetic subjects, especially following the development of chronic hyperglycemia from glucose intolerance (Table 3).
To explore the differences between the lean and obese normoglycemic groups, as well as between each of the obese groups, for all genes studied in both fat depots, further analyses were performed (Fig. 2). Some of the genes studied displayed a great interindividual variation but for LPL, GPD1, SREBP1, PPAR
, and FABP4, a trend toward a decreased expression in relation to obesity and diabetic state was observed. CD14 and IL-18 overexpression in omental adipose tissue was observed irrespective of obesity and glycemic state. However, CD14 gene expression in the subcutaneous fat significantly increased in T2DM obese subjects (Fig. 2). Although leptin expression was increased three- to four-fold in obese subjects, irrespective of the fat depot studied (Fig. 2), this pattern was not modified further by the glycemic state. HIF1
expression showed no depot-specific differences (Table 3). In addition, neither obesity nor the glycemic state exerted a differential effect on HIF1
expression (Fig. 2).
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| DISCUSSION |
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(40). The present study provides evidence that CD14 and IL-18 are enhanced in omental compared with subcutaneous adipose tissue irrespective of BMI or glycemic state. Macrophage infiltration into adipose tissue has been demonstrated (39). Mast cells were also described in adipose depots (5, 21). While these two cell types express CD14 and IL-18, they can also be detected in adipocytes of human origin (18, 40). Whether CD14 and IL-18 overexpression in omental fat is only due to adipose tissue immune cell infiltration or can be also attributed to adipocyte expression remains to be analyzed in further detail and was not explored in the present study. CD14 and IL-18 omental overexpression was noticeable in lean subjects. Higher macrophage infiltration in omental fat was documented even in lean subjects (12). This suggests that subcutaneous fat is less prone to inflammation than omental fat, where the portal irrigation could be a source of inflammatory compounds coming from the gastrointestinal system such as free fatty acids (14) or bacterial components of the microflora (1), independently of the presence of obesity.
The present study shows in human samples that genes related to lipid metabolism are decreased in omental fat tissue. Furthermore, CD14 and IL-18 expression is significantly inversely correlated to PPAR
, LPL, and FABP4 expression in this depot. We had previously shown using the 3T3-L1 cell line that upon continuous exposure to LPS, which is a TLR4 agonist and favors a proinflammatory environment, adipocyte differentiation was impaired (25). In this in vitro model, CD14 mRNA was drastically enhanced by the presence of LPS in the media, while FABP4, GPD1, LPL, PPAR
, and adiponectin mRNA levels were decreased. Furthermore, preadipocytes or adipocytes in less differentiated stages were also shown to keep higher proinflammatory features, such as cytokine secretion. In the present study, we confirm in human samples a potential suppression of lipogenic pathways by inflammation.
The design of our study allows analysis of the interference of diabetic status in this regulation. CD14 was raised in the subcutaneous fat in T2DM patients compared with that of normoglycemic individual. Moreover, in the diabetic group, differential expression between subcutaneous and omental adipose tissue is significant for 7 out of the 10 markers studied. All of these data suggest a higher level of inflammation in the diabetic group that enhances the disequilibrium. A direct effect of chronic hyperglycemia on systemic inflammation has been demonstrated by epidemiological studies (8).
Our results show that leptin is regulated differently compared with other adipogenesis markers with a strong sensitivity to BMI variation, on the one hand, and small impact of the glycemic state on leptin mRNA expression, on the other. These observations are in accord with previous results demonstrating by multiple regression analysis that insulinemia was a determinant of leptin concentration, but explaining only 2% of its variance, while 42% was attributable to adiposity (28).
It has been proposed that hypoxia may occur in obesity in relation to adipose tissue mass enlargement (35). Hypoxia has been shown to increase inflammation-related adipokines, such as IL6 and MIF, and to decrease adiponectin, in an adipocyte culture model (38), thus representing a good candidate for inflammation induction. Evidence for hypoxia in white adipose tissue of mouse models of obesity has been reported (13, 27). In our human samples, no significant differential expression of HIF1
, which should be increased under hypoxic conditions, was observed. It was suggested that hypoxia may primarily occur in clusters of adipocytes distant from the vasculature (35). Further studies with broader sampling that may include a representative collection of all of the local hypoxic events within the fat depots are needed to demonstrate the hypoxia hypothesis in humans.
Protein levels and activity were not evaluated due to the limited amount of adipose tissue biopsies available and should be analyzed in further studies. Nonetheless, several different lipogenesis genes were examined and the very consistent correlation patterns observed support the validity and relevance of our findings. Further studies in men are also clearly required to derive potential sex-specific differences related to our initial hypothesis.
Perspectives and Significance
We demonstrate here, by the analysis of several relevant genes that were analyzed simultaneously in the same paired human samples, that a global decrease of lipogenic markers is associated with inflammation enhancement. Two main characteristics are underlined: a global inflammation state in omental adipose tissue and an exacerbation of this feature with insulin resistance acquisition. Portal irrigation in the vicinity of omental fat depots, which is a source of exogenous components coming from intestinal flora or from nutrients, can explain the difference between omental and subcutaneous adipose tissue. Such components (free fatty acids or bacterial walls) are highly inflammatory and are able to stimulate the TLR4 pathway. TLR4 has been recently implied in obesity as a link between inflammation and insulin resistance development (30, 33, 37). Upon inflammatory stimulation, adipose tissue cells synthesize proinflammatory products and via chemokine synthesis induce potential recruitment of leukocytes. Whether the first reacting cells are preadipocytes, adipocytes, or preexisting tissue macrophages remains unknown. Preadipocytes are coming from a myeloid lineage, in which impairment of differentiation via TLR4 activation has been shown (19). In the 3T3-L1 cell line, we also demonstrated that TLR4 stimulation maintains a proinflammatory preadipocyte phenotype (25). In studied human samples, increased inflammation is accompanied by a decrease in lipogenesis. A physiological interpretation might be that more cells are switched to an inflammatory type rather than to a storage phenotype maintaining chronic inflammation and leading to the development of metabolic complications. Disrupting the vicious circle of inflammation represents a therapeutic target for obesity and diabetes control, which has been successfully tackled in mouse models impaired for TLR4 functionality that were protected from insulin resistance development (24, 37). Recently, the demonstration of the impact of the nature of microflora on weight gain prediction opens an exciting research field. Bifidobacteria reportedly improve glucose tolerance and inflammation (3, 16). Monitoring of intestinal flora might be achieved via oral administration of probiotics with anti-inflammatory properties and thus exert an impact on the inflammatory state of omental fat (2).
| GRANTS |
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| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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and IL-6. Diabetes Res Clin Pract 69: 29–35, 2005.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
in human adipocytes. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 337: 422–429, 2005.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]This article has been cited by other articles:
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T. K. Chatterjee, L. L. Stoll, G. M. Denning, A. Harrelson, A. L. Blomkalns, G. Idelman, F. G. Rothenberg, B. Neltner, S. A. Romig-Martin, E. W. Dickson, et al. Proinflammatory Phenotype of Perivascular Adipocytes: Influence of High-Fat Feeding Circ. Res., February 27, 2009; 104(4): 541 - 549. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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P. Trayhurn, B. Wang, and I. S. Wood HIF-1{alpha} protein rather than mRNA as a marker of hypoxia in adipose tissue in obesity: focus on "Inflammation is associated with a decrease of lipogenic factors in omental fat in women," by Poulain-Godefroy et al. Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol, October 1, 2008; 295(4): R1097 - R1097. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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O. Poulain-Godefroy and P. Froguel Response to the letter to the editor: "HIF-1{alpha} protein rather than mRNA as a marker of hypoxia in adipose tissue in obesity," by Trayhurn et al. Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol, October 1, 2008; 295(4): R1098 - R1098. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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