Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine gene expression in subcutaneous and visceral fat in severe obesity B. Spoto a, 1 , E. Di Betta b, 1 , F. Mattace-Raso c , E. Sijbrands c , A. Vilardi b , R.M. Parlongo a , P. Pizzini a , A. Pisano a , W. Vermi d , A. Testa a , S. Cutrupi a , G. D’Arrigo a , S. Lonardi d , G. Tripepi a , G. Cancarini e , C. Zoccali a, * a CNR-IFC, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Clinical Epidemiology and Physiopathology of Renal Diseases and Hypertension, Reggio Calabria, Italy b Division of General Surgery 1, A.O. Spedali Civili di Brescia, Italy c Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands d Section of Pathology, University of Brescia, Italy e Unit of Nephrology, A.O. Spedali Civili and University, Brescia, Italy Received 17 February 2014; received in revised form 15 April 2014; accepted 30 April 2014 Available online 27 May 2014 KEYWORDS Adipose tissue; Gene expression; Obesity; Inflammation Abstract Background and aims: Pro-inflammatory molecules produced by adipose tissue have been implicated in the risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease in obesity. We investigated the expres- sion profile of 19 pro-inflammatory and seven anti-inflammatory genes in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in 44 severely obese individuals who underwent bariatric surgery. Methods and results: SAT and VAT expressed an identical series of pro-inflammatory genes. Among these genes, 12 were significantly more expressed in SAT than in VAT while just one (IL18) was more expressed in VAT. The remaining genes were equally expressed. Among pro- inflammatory cytokines, both IL6 and IL8 were about 20 times more intensively expressed in SAT than in VAT. The expression of nine genes was highly associated in SAT and VAT. Only for three pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL8, IL18, SAA1) in SAT the gene expression in adipose tissue associated with the circulating levels of the corresponding gene products while no such an as- sociation was found as for VAT. Conclusions: The expression of critical pro-inflammatory genes is substantially higher in SAT than in VAT in individuals with morbid obesity. The variability in circulating levels of pro- inflammatory cytokines is, in small part and just for three pro-inflammatory cytokines, explained by underlying gene expression in SAT but not in VAT. These results point to a compartment-specific adipose tissue contribution to inflammation in obesity and indicate that abdominal SAT contributes more than VAT to the pro-inflammatory milieu associated with severe obesity. ª 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Introduction Adipose tissue is distributed throughout the body in discrete fat compartments which broadly cluster into two regions, a central and a peripheral one [1]. The central region includes subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) of the thorax and the abdomen as well as intra-thoracic and * Corresponding author. CNR-IFC & Unit of Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation, Ospedali Riuniti, 89124 Reggio Calabria, c/o EUROLINE di Barillà, Via Vallone Petrara 55-57, 89100 Reggio Calabria. Tel.: þ39 0965 397010; fax: þ0039 0965 26879. E-mail address: carmine.zoccali@tin.it (C. Zoccali). 1 These authors contributed equally to the study. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.numecd.2014.04.017 0939-4753/ª 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases (2014) 24, 1137e1143 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nmcd