Stearic acid content of abdominal adipose tissues in obese women

• Published in: Nutrition & diabetes 2012-01, Vol.2 (1), p.e23-e23
• Main Authors: Caron-Jobin, M, Mauvoisin, D, Michaud, A, Veilleux, A, Noël, S, Fortier, M P, Julien, P, Tchernof, A, Mounier, C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/1647/2196; 692/699/1702/393; Clinical Nutrition; Diabetes; Epidemiology; Internal Medicine; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Original; original-article
• ISSN: 2044-4052; 2044-4052
• DOI: 10.1038/nutd.2011.19

Objective: Subcutaneous (SC) adipose tissue stearic acid (18:0) content and stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD1)-mediated production of oleic acid (18:1) have been suggested to be altered in obesity. The objective of our study was to examine abdominal adipose tissue fatty acid content and SCD1 mRNA/protein level in women. Subjects and methods: Fatty acid content was determined by capillary gas chromatography in SC and omental (OM) fat tissues from two subgroups of 10 women with either small or large OM adipocytes. Samples from 10 additional women were used to measure SCD1 mRNA and protein expression, total extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and phosphorylated ERK1/2 protein as well as insulin receptor (IR) expression levels. Results: OM fat 18:0 content was significantly lower in women with large OM adipocytes compared with women who had similar adiposity, but small OM adipocytes (2.37±0.45 vs 2.75±0.30 mg per 100 g adipose tissue, respectively, P ⩽0.05). OM fat 18:0 content was negatively related to the visceral adipose tissue area ( r =−0.44, P =0.05) and serum triglyceride levels ( r =−0.56, P