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. 2017 Dec 19;16(1):248.
doi: 10.1186/s12944-017-0642-z.

Association between increased visceral fat area and alterations in plasma fatty acid profile in overweight subjects: a cross-sectional study

Miso Kang  1   2 , Ayoung Lee  1   2 , Hye Jin Yoo  1   2 , Minjoo Kim  3 , Minkyung Kim  3 , Dong Yeob Shin  4 , Jong Ho Lee  5   6   7
Affiliations

Association between increased visceral fat area and alterations in plasma fatty acid profile in overweight subjects: a cross-sectional study

Miso Kang et al. Lipids Health Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Visceral fat accumulation in overweight status has been resulted in changes of fatty acid profiles. The fatty acids profiles can be altered by fatty acid desaturase; the activity of which is highly associated with obesity and other metabolic diseases. We hypothesized that fatty acid composition, desaturase activity, and accumulation of visceral fat are interrelated. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between increased visceral fat area and alterations in plasma fatty acid profile in overweight subjects with different amounts of visceral fat.

Methods: Healthy overweight subjects (25.0 kg/m2 ≤ BMI < 30 kg/m2, n=232) were classified into lower (T1), middle (T2), and upper tertiles (T3) according to L4 visceral fat area (T1: <71.8 cm2, T2: 71.8 cm2-99.6 cm2, T3: >99.6 cm2).

Results: The T3 group showed higher amounts of cis-10-heptadecenoic acid and activity of C16 Δ9-desaturase and C18 Δ9-desaturase and lower activity of Δ5-desaturase than the T1 group. Additionally, the T3 group showed higher amounts of saturated fatty acids, myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, monounsaturated fatty acids, palmitoleic acid, oleic acid, n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, linoleic acid, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, n-3 PUFAs, and docosapentaenoic acid than the T1 and T2 groups.

Conclusions: This study indicates that greater than a certain area (>99.6 cm2) of visceral fat is needed to observe altered levels of individual fatty acid species and desaturase activities. The results suggest that increased activity of C16 Δ9-desaturase and C18 Δ9-desaturase in parallel with decreased Δ5-desaturase activity may be a causative factor in disturbed fatty acid metabolism.

Keywords: Fatty acid desaturase; Fatty acid metabolism; Fatty acids; Overweight; Visceral fat area.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

We gave all subjects a careful explanation of the purpose of the study and received written consent prior to their participation. The protocol used in the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Yonsei University and Yonsei University Severance Hospital according to the Helsinki Declaration.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Correlation matrix of CT and DEXA parameters, major fatty acids, and fatty acids desaturases in all study participants before and after adjusting for confounding factors. Correlations were obtained by deriving Pearson’s correlation coefficient (left box). Age, sex, smoking, drinking, and BMI were adjusted (partial correlation, right box). Red indicates a positive correlation and Blue indicates a negative correlation
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