STUDY ON BASAL APOPTOSIS OF ADIPOCYTES IN CHINESE
OBESE AND NON-OBESE CHILDREN
Xu Ping, Ding
ZY, Du LR
Beijing
Research Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China
Objective: To explore basal
apoptosis pattern of adipocytes and its related factors in obese and
non-obese children.
Methods:
Abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue samples were obtained from
thirty patients who underwent appendix removal surgery for acute
appendicitis, including fifteen obese children (male/female: 11/4) and
fifteen non-obese children (male/female: 9/6). The tissues were fixed with
10% neutral formaldehyde solution and sections 7um thick were cut from
paraffin-embedded fat tissues. Adipocytes apoptosis was detected with
terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL),
and the percentage of apoptosis-positive nuclei (apoptosis index, AI) was
calculated.
Results: The
apoptosis index (AI) of adipocytes in obese and non-obese children was very
low. The AI of adipocytes in obese group was 0.23%±0.18%, and
the AI of adipocytes in non-obese group was 0.65%±0.59%. The AI
of adipocytes in obese children was significantly lower than in non-obese
children (P<0.05). And the AI
of adipocytes in all the studied children had a negative correlation with body
mass index (BMI), percent of body fat (BF%), fat mass (FM), but had no
correlation with age and gender.
Conclusion:
The apoptosis index of adipocytes in children had a negative
correlation with body fatness. The apoptosis rate of adipocytes in obese
children was significantly lower than in non-obese children, and this may
be involved in the onset of obesity.