Pattern specification and immune response transcriptional signatures of pericardial and subcutaneous adipose tissue.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Recent studies suggest that pericardial adipose tissue (PCAT) secretes inflammatory factors that contribute to the development of CVD. To better characterize the role of PCAT in the pathogenesis of disease, we performed a large-scale unbiased analysis of the transcriptional differences between PCAT and subcutaneous adipose tissue, analysing 53 microarrays across 19 individuals. As it was unknown whether PCAT-secreted factors are produced by adipocytes or cells in the supporting stromal fraction, we also sought to identify differentially expressed genes in isolated pericardial adipocytes vs. isolated subcutaneous adipocytes. Using microarray analysis, we found that: 1) pericardial adipose tissue and isolated pericardial adipocytes both overexpress atherosclerosis-promoting chemokines and 2) pericardial and subcutaneous fat depots, as well as isolated pericardial adipocytes and subcutaneous adipocytes, express specific patterns of homeobox genes. In contrast, a core set of lipid processing genes showed no significant overlap with differentially expressed transcripts. These depot-specific homeobox signatures and transcriptional profiles strongly suggest different functional roles for the pericardial and subcutaneous adipose depots. Further characterization of these inter-depot differences should be a research priority.
Center for Regenerative Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Frank H
FH
Lau
Rahul C
RC
Deo
Gregory
G
Mowrer
Joshua
J
Caplin
Tim
T
Ahfeldt
Adam
A
Kaplan
Leon
L
Ptaszek
Jennifer D
JD
Walker
Bruce R
BR
Rosengard
Chad A
CA
Cowan
D017667:Adipocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D002469:Cell Separation; D018925:Chemokines / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity / Q000235:genetics*; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated; D010496:Pericardium / Q000276:immunology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D050151:Subcutaneous Fat / Q000276:immunology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D015854:Up-Regulation / Q000235:genetics
D018925:Chemokines; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins