Lipogenesis and lipoprotein lipase in human adipose tissue: reproducibility of measurements and relationships with fat cell size

Lipogenesis from glucose and lipoprotein lipase activity were investigated in humans. The reliability of measurements was quantified and correlations with fat cell weight were assessed. Twenty-four subjects (7 women, 17 men) were studied twice within a 2-week period, along with 17 additional male subjects who were studied once and used only in the correlation analyses. All subjects were not regularly involved in an exercise-training program and were between 18 and 30 years of age. Following an overnight fast, adipose tissue specimens were obtained by suprailiac biopsy and fat cells were collagenase isolated. Mean fat cell weight was obtained from 400 to 500 cell diameter determinations per subject. Basal and insulin-stimulated fat cell lipogenesis from glucose were determined using D-[U- 14 C]glucose and were reported in nanomoles of glucose per hour per 10 6 cells. Adipose tissue heparin-releasable lipoprotein lipase activity was also determined and expressed in micromoles of free fatty acids per hour per gram of tissue and per 10 6 cells. Fat cell weight, basal and insulin-stimulated lipogenesis and lipoprotein lipase activity per gram showed high reliability of measurement, interclass and intraclass coefficients being 0.83 and over. Lipoprotein lipase activity per 10 6 cells showed a somewhat lower degree of reliability, interclass and intraclass coefficients being, respectively, 0.69 and 0.81. On the other hand, fat cell weight was positively correlated with lipoprotein lipase activity (r = 0.80), while no significant correlation was observed between basal lipogenesis and fat cell weight. Moreover, basal lipogenesis presented no significant correlation with lipoprotein lipase activity. These results suggest that, under standardized conditions, and from a single tissue sample, human adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase activity and fat cell lipogenesis can be measured with a satisfactory level of reliability. They also suggest that lipoprotein lipase activity is highly related with adipocyte lipid content.