Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) has been shown to be associated with obesity and might be affected by dietary factors. Long-term dietary intake of amino acids are capable to change adipose tissue metabolism through regulation of FTO production. This study aims to examining the association of dietary acidic and basic amino acids (AAs) with FTO gene expression in subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues among non-diabetic adults.

Methods: A total of 87 adults (23% men), who were free of diabetes and undergone open abdominal surgery were included. Average intakes of acidic AAs including glutamic and aspartic acid, and basic AAs including histidine, arginine, and lysine were collected using a valid and reliable semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. During the surgery visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues were obtained, and FTO gene expression of both fat depots were assessed by Real-Time PCR.

Results: Mean (S.D.) for BMI among obese and non-obese participants were 42.6 (7.3) and 25.3 (3.1) kg/m², respectively. The median (25–75 IQR) intake of acidic and basic AAs were 9.7 (6.5–12.0) and 19.8 (25.1–13.7) g/d, which included 9.6 and 18.7 percent of total daily protein intake, respectively. No significant difference was observed for FTO gene expression in subcutaneous (−0.518 vs. 0.395, P=0.471) and visceral (−0.999 vs 0.773, P=0.161) fat mass between non-obese and obese participants, respectively. After adjusting for BMI and energy intake, 1-gram increment in acidic and basic AAs were accompanied with −0.358 (P=0.019) and −0.308 (P=0.045) unit increase in subcutaneous and −0.339 (P=0.017) and −0.320 (P=0.020) unit decrease in visceral FTO gene expression among obese participants, respectively. However, no significant association of acidic and basic AAs intake with neither subcutaneous ((β=0.088, P=0.632) and (β=0.119, P=0.518), respectively) nor visceral ((β=0.232, P=0.257) and (β=0.230, P=0.257), respectively) adipose tissue were found among non-obese participants.

Conclusion: Our finding showed that higher dietary acidic and basic AAs can decrease FTO gene expression among obese non-diabetic adults.