Nutrition and Obesity Group, Lucio Lascaray Research Center, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
CIBERobn Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition, Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII), 28029 Madrid, Spain.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Jul 26;22(15):7975. doi: 10.3390/ijms22157975.
The present review is aimed at analysing the current evidence concerning the potential modulation of obesity and/or diet in adipose tissue ACE2. Additionally, the potential implications of these effects on COVID-19 are also addressed. The results published show that diet and obesity are two factors that effectively influence the expression of gene in adipose tissue. However, the shifts in this gene do not always occur in the same direction, nor with the same intensity. Additionally, there is no consensus regarding the implications of increased adipose tissue ACE2 expression in health. Thus, while in some studies a protective role is attributed to ACE2 overexpression, other studies suggest otherwise. Similarly, there is much debate regarding the role played by ACE2 in COVID-19 in terms of degree of infection and disease outcomes. The greater risk of infection that may hypothetically derive from enhanced ACE2 expression is not clear since the functionality of the enzyme seems to be as important as the abundance. Thus, the greater abundance of ACE2 in adipose tissue of obese subjects may be counterbalanced by its lower activation. In addition, a protective role of ACE2 overexpression has also been suggested, associated with the increase in anti-inflammatory factors that it may produce.
本综述旨在分析目前关于肥胖和/或饮食对脂肪组织 ACE2 潜在调节的证据。此外，还探讨了这些影响对 COVID-19 的潜在意义。已发表的结果表明，饮食和肥胖是有效影响基因在脂肪组织中表达的两个因素。然而，这种基因的变化并不总是朝着相同的方向发生，也不是以相同的强度发生。此外，对于增加的脂肪组织 ACE2 表达对健康的影响，目前尚无共识。因此，虽然在一些研究中，ACE2 的过表达被认为具有保护作用，但其他研究则表明并非如此。同样，关于 ACE2 在 COVID-19 中感染程度和疾病结果方面的作用存在很多争议。从增强的 ACE2 表达可能带来的更高感染风险来看，尚不清楚，因为酶的功能与丰度同样重要。因此，肥胖患者脂肪组织中 ACE2 丰度的增加可能会被其较低的活性所抵消。此外，还提出了 ACE2 过表达的保护作用，它可能与 ACE2 产生的抗炎因子增加有关。
