Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Aydin University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Department of General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Aydin University VM Medical Park Florya Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Mol Biol Rep. 2021 Jan;48(1):251-257. doi: 10.1007/s11033-020-06043-9. Epub 2020 Dec 11.
The VGF gene, which has been shown to be metabolically associated with energy balance, glucose homeostasis, insulin secretion process, and biological processes related to overeating, is prominent in relation to obesity. TLQP-21 neuropeptide, derived from the VGF, is considered to promote lipolysis by the beta-adrenergic pathway through targeting the C3aR1 receptor located in the adipocyte membrane. In this study, we aimed to measure the expression levels of the VGF and C3aR1 genes in the adipose tissue of obese subjects and individuals with normal weight determined based on body mass index (BMI), and to reveal the correlation of these levels with obesity. VGF and C3aR1 gene expression levels were measured using Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT PCR) in the visceral adipose tissue (VAT) samples of 52 obese patients (BMI ≥ 35 kg/m) and 21 non-obese controls (BMI = 18.5-24.9 kg/m). The results were statistically analyzed. The VGF expression was lower and the C3aR1 gene expression was higher in obese patients compared to the non-obese control group (p < 0.05). In obese patients, there was a statistically significant positive correlation of 85.6% between VGF and C3aR1, in which when one level increased, the other also increased (p < 0.05, r = 0.856). The findings show that the VGF may be significantly associated with obesity and is very important since it is the first to measure the level of VGF gene expression in human adipose tissue. This research provides new evidence of a link between obesity and VGF/C3aR1 and in the future may help design strategies to combat obesity.
VGF 基因与能量平衡、葡萄糖稳态、胰岛素分泌过程以及与暴饮暴食相关的生物学过程有关，与肥胖关系密切。TLQP-21 神经肽来源于 VGF，通过靶向位于脂肪细胞膜上的 C3aR1 受体，被认为通过β-肾上腺素能途径促进脂肪分解。在这项研究中，我们旨在测量肥胖患者和根据体重指数（BMI）确定的正常体重个体的脂肪组织中 VGF 和 C3aR1 基因的表达水平，并揭示这些水平与肥胖的相关性。使用实时聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）测量 52 名肥胖患者（BMI≥35kg/m）和 21 名非肥胖对照组（BMI=18.5-24.9kg/m）的内脏脂肪组织（VAT）样本中的 VGF 和 C3aR1 基因表达水平。对结果进行了统计分析。与非肥胖对照组相比，肥胖患者的 VGF 表达较低，C3aR1 基因表达较高（p<0.05）。在肥胖患者中，VGF 和 C3aR1 之间存在统计学上显著的正相关关系，即当一个水平增加时，另一个水平也增加（p<0.05，r=0.856）。研究结果表明，VGF 可能与肥胖有显著关联，并且非常重要，因为这是首次在人体脂肪组织中测量 VGF 基因表达水平。该研究为肥胖与 VGF/C3aR1 之间的联系提供了新的证据，并可能有助于未来设计对抗肥胖的策略。
