Concentrations of adipsin in blood and rates of adipsin secretion by adipose tissue in humans with normal, elevated and diminished adipose tissue mass

Adipsin, which is identical to complement factor D, is synthesized by fat cells, circulates in the bloodstream and is profoundly deficient in mice with genetic and hypothalamic obesity. With the recent cloning of human adipsin, a quantitative human immunoassay has been developed. In the present stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of obesity and related metabolic disorders : journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 213 - 218
Main Authors Napolitano, A, Lowell, B.B, Damm, D, Leibel, R.L, Ravussin, E, Jimerson, D.C, Lesem, M.D, Van Dyke, D.C, Daly, P.A, Chatis, P
Format Publication
LanguageEnglish
Published 1994
Subjects
adipose tissue
anorexia nervosa
body weight
complement
men
obesity
women
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Summary:Adipsin, which is identical to complement factor D, is synthesized by fat cells, circulates in the bloodstream and is profoundly deficient in mice with genetic and hypothalamic obesity. With the recent cloning of human adipsin, a quantitative human immunoassay has been developed. In the present study, we measured adipsin blood concentrations in humans with increased and decreased adipose stores as well as adlpain secretion by adipose tissue obtained from lean and obese individuals. The results demonstrate that adipsin is released by human adipose tissue fragments as has Previously been shown in mice, and that, in contrast to obese mice, blood adipsin concentrations were not reduced in the obese humans tested in this study. We also observed that blood adipsin concentrations can vary as a function of feeding or adiposity, in that they tend to be mildly elevated in obese individuals or mildly reduced in individuals with total lipo-atrophy, cachexia related to AIDS and anorexia nervosa. Thus, the circulating concentration of adipsin tends to correlate positively with degree of adiposity. Clearly, no deficiency in blood adipsin concentrations or adipsin secretion by adipose tissue was observed in the obese individuals studied.