Relationship between altered postprandial lipemia and insulin resistance in normolipidemic and normoglucose tolerant obese patients.

OBJECTIVE

Although there are changes in the postprandial lipid responses of obese patients, these are closely associated with high fasting triglycerides (TG). This study of 17 normotriglyceridemic, normoglucose-tolerant android obese subjects (body mass index, BMI = 34.3 +/- 3.1 kg/m2) and 33 normal-weight controls (BMI = 21.8 +/- 1.6 kg/m2) was done to examine their postprandial responses to an oral fat loading test containing retinol (890 calories, 85% fat) and to evaluate the possible association between clinical and biological features of obesity and/or insulin resistance and postprandial lipemia.

SUBJECTS AND MEASUREMENTS

Blood samples were taken before giving the fat load and at 2,3,4,5,6 and 8 h after it. Insulin sensitivity was assessed using HOMA, and TG and retinyl palmitate (RP) in the plasma, chylomicrons and non-chylomicron fractions were measured each time.

RESULTS

The areas under the curves (AUC) of chylomicron TG for the obese and controls were not different, indicating adequate lipolytic activity. By contrast, the AUC for non-chylomicron TG was significantly greater in the obese than in the controls (512 +/- 135 vs 429 +/- 141 mmol/lmin, P < 0.01). In addition, the AUC for RP in this same fraction was significantly lower in the obese than in the controls (103 +/- 55 vs 157 +/- 88 mg/l min, P < 0.05), suggesting that the TG from endogenous lipoproteins accounted for most of the increase in TG in the non chylomicron fraction. Parameters related to obesity showed no relationship with these postprandial abnormalities, whereas HOMA, which discriminated between the groups, partly explained (r2= 23%, P < 0.01) the significant increase in non-chylomicron TG.

CONCLUSIONS

Android obese patients with a fasting TG in the normal range and not different from the fasting TG of lean controls had an abnormal postprandial lipemia response, indicated by a significantly greater TG in the non-chylomicron subfraction than in controls. These alterations may be partly due to postprandial changes in endogenous lipoproteins as a consequence of insulin resistance.