Relationship between vaspin gene expression and abdominal fat distribution of Korean women

Visceral adipose tissue-derived serpin (vaspin) is a novel adipokine that is thought to have insulin-sensitizing effects. We investigated vaspin mRNA expression in abdominal adipose tissue and examined how gene expression related to abdominal fat distribution and metabolic parameters in Korean women. We measured anthropometric variables, metabolic parameters, serum vaspin concentration, and vaspin mRNA expression in abdominal adipose tissue obtained from women who underwent abdominal gynecological surgery and were aged 18-67 years (n = 85). Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) area were measured in 40 subjects using computed tomography (CT). Vaspin expression was analyzed by real-time quantitative RT-PCR according to abdominal fat distribution. Vaspin mRNA expression was greater in adipocytes than in stroma/vascular cells. In the total subjects, vaspin expression was significantly higher in SAT than in VAT. Vaspin expression in SAT in subcutaneous fat type (VSR ≤ 0.3) was significantly higher than in visceral fat type (VSR > 0.3), although vaspin expression in VAT was similar between subcutaneous and visceral fat type. There was a significant negative correlation between vaspin expression in SAT and VAT area (r = -0.55, p = 0.001). Serum vaspin concentration was significantly correlated with fasting insulin (r = 0.30, p = 0.02), HOMA-IR (r = 0.29, p = 0.02), and the ratio of vaspin expression in VAT to vaspin expression in SAT (r = 0.41, p = 0.04). Vaspin expression in abdominal adipose tissue was adipocyte-specific and vaspin expression in SAT decreased as VAT area increased.