Systemic Physiological and Ecotoxicological Research (SPHERE), Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism, Antwerp University Hospital, University of Antwerp, Edegem, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2014 Jan 10;9(1):e84816. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084816. eCollection 2014.
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) accumulate in adipose tissue and some are described to possess endocrine disrupting capacities. Therefore, it is important to evaluate their effects on key endocrine pathways in adipose tissue (AT), to further evaluate their potential role in metabolic pathologies such as obesity.
THE AIM IS TWOFOLD: (i) evaluate gene expression levels of obesity marker genes, i.e. the adipokines leptin (LEP), adiponectin (ADIPOQ) and Tumor Necrosis Factor α (TNFα) and the nuclear receptor, Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor γ (PPARγ) in paired subcutaneous (SAT) and visceral (VAT) AT of obese subjects (n = 50) and to relate these values to serum concentrations of LEP and ADIPOQ (ii) evaluate the association of expression levels of marker genes in AT and serum with POP concentrations in AT.
Leptin and adiponectin levels in serum were positively correlated to respectively expression levels of leptin in SAT and adiponectin in VAT. Our study shows more significant correlations between gene expression of obesity marker genes and POP concentrations in VAT compared to SAT. Since VAT is more important than SAT in pathologies associated with obesity, this suggests that POPs are able to influence the association between obesity and the development of associated pathologies. Moreover, this finding reveals the importance of VAT when investigating the obesogen hypothesis. Concerning PPARγ expression in VAT, negative correlations with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) concentrations were found in non T2D patients. LEP serum concentrations correlated with several PCBs in women whereas in men no correlations were found. This strengthens the potential importance of gender differences in obesity and within the obesogen hypothesis.
持久性有机污染物（POPs）会在脂肪组织中积累，其中一些被描述为具有内分泌干扰能力。因此，评估它们对脂肪组织（AT）中关键内分泌途径的影响非常重要，以便进一步评估它们在肥胖等代谢性疾病中的潜在作用。
本研究有两个目的：（i）评估肥胖标志物基因的表达水平，即瘦素（LEP）、脂联素（ADIPOQ）和肿瘤坏死因子α（TNFα）的脂肪因子和核受体过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体γ（PPARγ）在肥胖患者（n=50）配对的皮下（SAT）和内脏（VAT）AT 中的表达水平，并将这些值与血清中 LEP 和 ADIPOQ 的浓度相关联；（ii）评估 AT 和血清中标志物基因的表达水平与 AT 中 POP 浓度的关系。
血清中瘦素和脂联素的水平与 SAT 中瘦素和 VAT 中脂联素的表达水平呈正相关。与 SAT 相比，我们的研究表明，肥胖标志物基因的基因表达与 VAT 中 POP 浓度之间的相关性更为显著。由于 VAT 在与肥胖相关的病理中比 SAT 更为重要，这表明 POP 能够影响肥胖与相关病理发展之间的关联。此外，这一发现揭示了在研究肥胖基因假说时 VAT 的重要性。关于 VAT 中的 PPARγ表达，在非 T2D 患者中发现其与多氯联苯（PCBs）浓度呈负相关。LEP 血清浓度与几种 PCBs 在女性中相关，而在男性中则无相关性。这进一步证实了性别差异在肥胖和肥胖基因假说中的重要性。
