[Effect of high-fat diet and exercise on asprosin and CTRP6 expression in subcutaneous and retroperitoneal adipose...

To study the effects of high-fat (HF) diet and exercise on the expressions of asprosin and CTRP6 in adipose tissues in different regions of rats during mid-gestation.

Pregnant SD rats were fed on a standard chow diet or a high-fat (60% fat content) diet for 14 days starting on gestation day (GD) 1. Starting from GD3, the rats fed either on normal or high-fat diet in the exercise groups (CH-RW and HF-RW groups) were allowed access to the running wheels for voluntary running, and those in sedentary groups (CH-SD and HF-SD groups) remained sedentary. At the end of the 14 days, adipose tissues were sampled from different regions of the rats for detecting the mRNA and protein expressions of asprosin and CTRP6 using RT-qPCR and Western blotting.

The mRNA expression of asprosin in retroperitoneal adipose tissues was significantly higher in HF-RW group than in the other 3 groups (P < 0.0001). Asprosin mRNA expression in subcutaneous adipose tissues was significantly higher in HF-SD group than in CH-SD group (P=0.0234) and comparable between HF-RW and CH-SD groups (P=0.0494). CTRP6 mRNA expression in retroperitoneal adipose tissues was also significantly higher in HF-RW group than in the other groups (P < 0.0001), and CTRP6 protein expression was signficiantly higher in HF-RW group than in CH-RW and HF-SD groups (P < 0.05). In subcutaneous adipose tissues, CTRP6 mRNA expression was significantly higher in CH-RW group than in HF-SD and HF-RW groups (P < 0.05). The protein expression level of CTRP6 in subcutaneous adipose tissues showed a significant negative correlation with blood glucose (r=-0.6038, P=0.0172), while its expression in retroperitoneal adipose tissues was positively correlated with blood glucose (r=0.5305, P= 0.0285); the mRNA expression levels of asprosin and CTRP6 were significantly lower in subcutaneous than in retroperitoneal adipose tissues (P < 0.0001).

High-fat diet and exercise during mid-gedtation can affect the expression levels of asprosin and CTRP6 in adipose tissues of rats in a site-specific manner.