Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is correlated with increased cardiovascular risk and characterized by several factors, including visceral obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance. Several members of a large family of nonselective cation channels, e.g., transient receptor potential (TRP) channels, have been associated with the development of cardiovascular diseases. Thus, changes of TRP channel expression may account for the observed increased cardiovascular risk in MetS patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible contribution of TRP channel gene expressions in MetS.

Methods: A total of 54 patients with obesity-related MetS, and 41 healthy control subjects with similar age and sex were included to this study. mRNA from blood samples was extracted, and real-time PCR on the BioMark HD dynamic array system (Fluidigm, South San Francisco, CA, USA) was performed for the TRP channel gene expressions. For calculation of the significance of differences in gene expressions, the Mann–Whitney U test was used.

Results: We observed marked decreases in TRPC1, TRPC3, TRPM2, TRPM5, TRPV4, TRPV5, TRPV6, MCOLN2 (TRPML2), and MCOLN3 (TRPML3) gene expressions in MetS (P<0.05). However, there was an augmentation in TRPC6 gene expression (P<0.05). No significant changes in expressions were found with TRPA1, TRPC4, TRPC5, TRPC7, TRPM1, TRPM3, TRPM4, TRPM6, TRPM7, TRPM8, TRPV1, TRPV2, TRPV3, MCOLN1 (TRPML1), and PKD2 (TRPP2) genes in MetS patients (P>0.05).

Conclusion: This study revealed that there is a statistically significant relationship between TRP channels gene expressions and MetS. Our data showed that TRP channel gene expressions may contribute to the pathology of MetS.

Disclosure: This study was supported by a project (TF.13.20) from the University of Gaziantep.