The Perilipin Mrna Expression Level In Abdominal Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue And Its Correlation With Metabolic Syndrome Related Indexes

ObjectivePerilipins are phosphoproteins that coated on the surface of lipid droplets in adipocytes and regulated lipid metabolism. They belong to a family of phosphoproteins, called perilipin protein family. Perilipin family is consisted of perilipin A, perilipin B, perilipin C, perilipin D, ADRP, TIP47, S3-12, and OXPAT. Perilipin is coded by a single gene. The PLIN gene of human locates in 15q26 of the chromosome. Currently, human PLIN single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), Perilipin mRNA and protein expression level have been studied in several populations. One study done in the non-diabetics found that the amount of perilipin mRNA and perilipin protein was highly correlated. The perilipin mRNA expression levels were significantly positively correlated with obesity measurment. Study also indicators that the perilipin mRNA level in seriously obese subcutaneous adipose tissue was lower than that in non-obese subjects. Compared to tissue protein or fat cell surface area in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue of the seriously obese subjects, perilipin protein level was also significantly lower than that in non-obese ones. Therefore, there was no consistent conclusion about the correlation between the perilipin mRNA and protein in human subcutaneous adipose tissue. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the perilipin mRNA transcription level in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue of the study participants and the correlation between perilipin mRNA transcriptional level and the metabolic syndrome related indexes.Materials and methodsThe abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue of the study participants who undergone abdominal operation were collected. Data of demographic characteristics, medical history, and behavior risk factors were collected by standard questionnaire interview. Anthropometric measurements including height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, and blood pressure were taken by using standard techniques. We also examined biochemical indexes including fasting glucose, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides. The perilipin mRNA expression level in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue was detected by RT-PCR method. Wilcoxon rank test was used to test the difference of the continous data between groups. Chi-square test was used to compare the percentage in different groups. The spearman rank correlation coefficient was used to test the relationship between perilipin mRNA expression level and anthropometric and metabolic syndrome related indexes.ResultsPerilipin mRNA expression levels in participants with different BMI categories for males and femalesThe perilipin mRNA expression level (Data are shown as median and it's 25% and 75% percentiles) was 0.45 (0.48-0.71) for all the study subjects. For males, it was 0.42 (0.25-0.50). The expression levels for normal weight and overweight (including obese subjects) in males were 0.44 (0.25-0.63) and 0.39 (0.16-0.45) {P >0.05), respectively. The expression level for females was 0.55 (0.31-0.73). The expression levels for normal weight and overweight (including obese subjects) in females were 0.59 (0.30-0.76) and 0.48 (0.31-0.73) (P >0.05), respectively. The perilipin mRNA expression level was also not significant between males and females (Data are shown previously, P >0.05). The expression levels for the normal weight and overweight (including obese) groups were 0.47 (0.28-0.71) and 0.45 (0.27-0.71) (P>0.05), respectively.The correlation between perilipin mRNA expression level and anthropometric and metabolic syndrome related indexes.The result shows that perilipin mRNA expression level was negatively correlated with height (r=-0.26, P=0.0222) and waist circumference (r=-0.25, P=0.0305), but positive correlated with high density lipoprotein cholesterol (r=0.38, P=0.0007) in the study subjects.ConclusionsThere is no difference for perilipin mRNA expression levels between normal weight and overweight (including obese) individuals, and also there is no difference for males and females.The perilipin mRNA expression level is negatively correlated with height and waist circumference and positively with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.