Genome-Wide Expression in Visceral Adipose Tissue from Obese Prepubertal Children

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Concepción M. Aguilera²  Carolina Gomez-Llorente²  Inés Tofe¹  Mercedes Gil-Campos¹  Ramón Ca༞te¹  Ángel Gil² 

[1] Unit of Pediatric Endocrinology, Reina Sofia University Hospital, Avda Menéndez Pidal s/n. 14004 Córdoba, Spain; E-Mails:;Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II, Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, Centre for Biomedical Research, University of Granada, Armilla, 18100 Granada, Spain; E-Mails:

关键词: obesity;    visceral adipose tissue;    prepubertal children;    microarray;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms16047723

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Characterization of the genes expressed in adipose tissue (AT) is key to understanding the pathogenesis of obesity and to developing treatments for this condition. Our objective was to compare the gene expression in visceral AT (VAT) between obese and normal-weight prepubertal children. A total of fifteen obese and sixteen normal-weight children undergoing abdominal elective surgery were selected. RNA was extracted from VAT biopsies. Microarray experiments were independently performed for each sample (six obese and five normal-weight samples). Validation by quantitative PCR (qPCR) was performed on an additional 10 obese and 10 normal-weight VAT samples. Of 1276 differentially expressed genes (p < 0.05), 245 were more than two-fold higher in obese children than in normal-weight children. As validated by qPCR, expression was upregulated in genes involved in lipid and amino acid metabolism (CES1, NPRR3 and BHMT2), oxidative stress and extracellular matrix regulation (TNMD and NQO1), adipogenesis (CRYAB and AFF1) and inflammation (ANXA1); by contrast, only CALCRL gene expression was confirmed to be downregulated. In conclusion, this study in prepubertal children demonstrates the up- and down-regulation of genes that encode molecules that were previously proposed to influence the pathogenesis of adulthood obesity, as well as previously unreported dysregulated genes that may be candidate genes in the aetiology of obesity.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.