Effects of aging and obesity on aromatase activity of human adipose cells

Adipose tissue is the principal site of estrogen formation in postmenopausal women; with advancing age as well as with increased body weight, there is an increase in the fractional conversion of circulating androstenedione to estrone. We have studied the effects of aging as well as body weight on aromatase activity of adipose tissue specimens taken from 50 women of various ages and weights. Since aromatase activity of adipose tissue is detectable primarily in stromal cells, these cells were incubated with [1-3H]androstenedione (150 nM), and estrogen formation was assayed by measuring the incorporation of tritium into [3H]water. The aromatization rate, when normalized on the basis of equal numbers of cells, increased with increasing age (P less than 0.03; r = 0.43). In contrast, when expressed as a function of body weight, no change in aromatase activity of adipose stromal cells were found. Aromatization of androstenedione by cells from young women who had undergone oophorectomy was not increased compared with that of cells from young women with normal ovarian function, indicating that the onset of menopause per se and the accompanying increase in circulating gonadotropin levels were not causative factors in the increased aromatase activity of adipose stromal cells. We conclude, therefore, that increased estrone production associated with aging may result from an increase in the specific activity of the aromatase enzyme in adipose stromal cells and is not affected by changes in gonadotropin concentrations associated with menopause. On the other hand, the increase in estrogen formation as a function of obesity is probably due to increased numbers of adipose cells, rather than to an increase in the specific activity of aromatase in those cells.