Endocrine Abstracts

Adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) are key enzymes involved in intracellular degradation of triacylglycerols. The environmental factors and circulating biomarkers can affect the expression of ATGL and HSL in adipocytes among rats. To our knowledge, however, no information is known about the dietary and plasma fatty acids composition on gene expression of ATGL and HSL in human adipose tissue. We aimed to determine how fatty acid species measured in plasma and dietary intake associate with HSL and ATGL gene expression in subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues. In this study, 97 participants aged ≥18 years were selected from patients admitted to the hospital for abdominal surgeries. Visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues were obtained during the operation those with minimal impact on dietary intake. Habitual dietary intake of participants was collected using a valid and reliable food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), from which the intake of fatty acids was quantified. Plasma fatty acids were assessed by gas-liquid chromatography. The gene expressions ATGL and HSL in visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue were assessed by Real-Time PCR. After adjustment for total energy intake, sex, HOMA-IR, and age, visceral adipose tissue ATGL and HSL gene expression was associated with total fatty acids concentration (β = 0.373, P = 0.032 and β = 0.411, P = 0.006, respectively). Furthermore, visceral adipose tissue ATGL and HSL gene expression was significantly associated with plasma PUFAs (β = 0.421, P = 0.002 and β = 0.395, P = 0.026, respectively). Moreover, in visceral adipose tissue, HSL mRNA levels had a significant association with dietary PUFA intake (β = 0.471, P < 0.001). There was no significant association of dietary intake and plasma fatty acids with ATGL and HSL expression in subcutaneous adipose tissue. Expression of adipose tissue ATGL and HSL positively associated with total fatty acids and PUFA concentration in visceral fat. Besides, dietary PUFA has an association with only HSL in visceral fat. It seems that fat quantity along with quality may be most important for modulating visceral adipose tissue ATGL and HSL gene expression.