Regional variation in HDL metabolism in human fat cells: effect of cell size

Abdominal obesity is related to reduced plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and both are associated with cardiovascular disease risk. We have observed that plasma membranes from abdominal subcutaneous adipocytes have a greater HDL binding capacity than omental fat cell plasma membranes. The present study examined whether these binding characteristics could be due to differences in fat cell size or cholesterol concentration between the two adipose depots. Abdominal subcutaneous and deep omental fat were obtained from massively obese patients at surgery. Subcutaneous abdominal fat cells were significantly larger and their cellular cholesterol content greater than omental adipocytes. The uptake of HDL by collagenase-isolated fat cells was studied by incubating the cells for 2 h at 37 degrees C with 10 micrograms/ml 125I-HDL2 or 125I-HDL3. In both depots, the cellular uptake of 125I-HDL2 and 125I-HDL3 was specifically inhibited by addition of 25-fold excess unlabeled HDL and a close correlation was observed between the cellular uptake of 125I-HDL2 and 125I-HDL3. In obese patients, the uptake of 125I-HDL was higher in subcutaneous cells than in omental cells [5.85 +/- 0.53 vs. 2.74 +/- 0.30 pmol X 2 h-1. (10(6) cells)-1]. The cellular 125I-HDL uptake was significantly correlated with adipocyte size and fat cell cholesterol content but not with adipocyte cholesterol concentration. These results suggest that the higher HDL uptake observed in subcutaneous cells compared with omental cells in obesity is the result of differences in adipocyte size rather than differences in the cholesterol concentration (cholesterol-to-triglyceride ratio).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)