Adipogenic and antiapoptotic protein levels in human adipose stromal cells after weight loss

Objective: Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, current strategies to achieve sustained weight loss are often unsuccessful. Fat reaccumulation might be favored by enhanced adipose cell differentiation or survival in the postreduced state. Research Methods and Procedures: We measured adipogenic and apoptotic protein expression in subcutaneous abdominal adipose stromal-vascular cells from 10 obese patients (7 women and 3 men) that were obtained before and after a 16% weight loss in a medically supervised weight loss program. Results: After weight loss, protein expression was 2.4-fold higher (p < 0.005) for p42 C/CAAT enhancer binding protein a, but there was no change for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma1; both of these are adipogenic regulators. For neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein, a protein associated with adipose cell apoptotic resistance, there was a rise of 1.7-fold (p < 0.02). Discussion: Alterations in C/CAAT enhancer binding protein a and neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein expression occurred in human adipose stromal-vascular cells after weight loss in a pilot study of 10 patients. It will be important for future studies to directly examine whether the adipogenic and antiapoptotic capacity of these cells is changed after weight loss.