Plasma palmitoleic acid, a product of stearoyl-coA desaturase activity, is an independent marker of triglyceridemia and abdominal adiposity Franc ¸ois Paillard a, *, Daniel Catheline b , Franck Le Duff c , Monique Bouriel b , Yves Deugnier d , Michel Pouchard e , Jean-Claude Daubert a , Philippe Legrand b a Cardiovascular Prevention Center, Departement de Cardiologie, CHU Pontchaillou, 2 rue Henri Le Guilloux, 35033 Rennes, France b Laboratoire de Biochimie, INRA-ENSA, Rennes, France c De´partement d’Informatique Me´dicale, CHU Pontchaillou, Rennes, France d Centre d’Investigations Cliniques, CHU Pontchaillou, Rennes, France e Centre d’Examens de Sante´CPAM, Rennes, France Received 9 August 2006; received in revised form 9 February 2007; accepted 12 February 2007 KEYWORDS Abdominal adiposity; Triglycerides; Metabolic syndrome; Palmitoleic acid; Stearoyl-coA desaturase Abstract Background and aim: In an animal model VLDL-triglyceride secretion is highly de- pendent on stearoyl-coA desaturase (SCD) activity and could explain abdominal fattening. The aim was to assess the relationship of plasma palmitoleic acid content, a product of SCD activity, with triglyceridemia and abdominal adiposity in humans. Methods: We evaluated 134 healthy men. Plasma palmitoleic acid content was used as an in- direct measurement of SCD activity because that enzyme catalyzes the desaturation from sat- urated to monounsaturated fatty acids and palmitoleic acid intake is very small. Results: Subjects with triglycerides 75th percentile had a higher palmitoleic acid content than those with triglycerides <75th percentile (3.8  0.8 vs 2.8  0.9%, p < 0.0001). Triglycer- idemia was strongly correlated with palmitoleic acid content (PAC) (r Z 0.533, p < 0.001). Mean triglyceridemia was 114% higher (1.43  0.75 vs 0.67  0.22 mmol/l) in the fourth quar- tile than in the first quartile of palmitoleic acid content. In a stepwise logistic regression anal- ysis, palmitoleic acid content was the most strongly and independently associated parameter with triglyceridemia, and also with waist circumference when triglyceridemia was not included in the analysis. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ33 2 99 28 25 08; fax: þ33 2 99 28 25 06. E-mail address: francois.paillard@chu-rennes.fr (F. Paillard). 0939-4753/$ - see front matter ª 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2007.02.017 available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nmcd Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases (2008) 18, 436e440