title: Visfatin expression is not associated with adipose tissue abundance in the porcine model.
abstract: Visfatin was recently identified as a novel adipokine highly enriched in visceral adipose tissue and suggested to play a role in the pathophysiology of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, the biological role of visfatin remains elusive since subsequent studies failed to repeat some of the original findings. We report here the cloning of six porcine visfatin transcript variants, resulting from alternate polyadenylation or alternate splicing of exons. It is further demonstrated that the porcine visfatin gene and protein expression measured in fat tissues correlate negatively with subcutaneous (s.c.), visceral and total body fat tissue weights. Moreover, there was no correlation between visfatin mRNA or protein levels and fasting glucose or insulin. No correlation could be found between circulating visfatin and any of the carcass and metabolic parameters. Our results also demonstrate that the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)alpha increases porcine visfatin gene expression in stromal-vascular (SV) cell cultures, thus suggesting an intermediary role for TNFalpha in visfatin response. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the porcine visfatin gene cannot be considered as a marker of fat accumulation since the highest visfatin expression levels were associated with the leaner animals.
authors.affiliation: Dairy and Swine Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2000 rue du Collège, CP 90, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada J1M 1Z3. palinmf@agr.gc.ca
authors.forename: Marie-France
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Palin
authors.forename: Benoît
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Labrecque
authors.forename: Danièle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beaudry
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mayhue
authors.forename: Vilceu
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bordignon
authors.forename: Bruce D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Murphy
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition / Q000235:genetics*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D015870:Gene Expression; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D054409:Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013552:Swine / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D013851:Thinness / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D007527:Isoenzymes; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D054409:Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase