Human epicardial adipokine messenger RNAs: comparisons of their expression in substernal, subcutaneous, and omental fat

We compared the gene expression of inflammatory and other proteins by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction in epicardial, substernal (mediastinal) and subcutaneous sternal, upper abdominal, and leg fat from coronary bypass patients and omental (visceral) fat from extremely obese women undergoing bariatric surgery. We hypothesized that (1) epicardial fat would exhibit higher expression of inflammatory messenger RNAs (mRNAs) than substernal and subcutaneous fat and (2) epicardial mRNAs would be similar to those in omental fat. Epicardial fat was clearly different from substernal fat because there was a far higher expression of haptoglobin, prostaglandin D2 synthase, nerve growth factor β, the soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (FLT1), and α1 glycoprotein but not of inflammatory adipokines such as monocyte chemoattractant protein–1, interleukin (IL)-8, IL-1β, tumor necrosis factor α, serum amyloid A, plasminogen activator inhibitor–1, or adiponectin despite underlying coronary atherosclerosis. However, the latter inflammatory adipokines as well as most other mRNAs were overexpressed in epicardial fat as compared with the subcutaneous depots except for IL-8, fatty acid binding protein 4, the angiotensin II receptor 1, IL-6, and superoxide dismutase–2. Relative to omental fat, about one third of the genes were expressed at the same levels, whereas monocyte chemoattractant protein–1, cyclooxygenase-2, plasminogen activator inhibitor–1, IL-1β, and IL-6 were expressed at far lower levels in epicardial fat. In conclusion, epicardial fat does not appear to be a potentially more important source of inflammatory adipokines than substernal mediastinal fat. Furthermore, the expression of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and IL-1β is actually higher in omental fat from obese women without coronary atherosclerosis. The data do not support the hypothesis that most of the inflammatory adipokines are expressed at high levels in epicardial fat of humans.