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Endocrine Abstracts (2015) 37 GP06.05 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.37.GP.06.05

ECE2015 Guided Posters Reproduction: Female and PCOS (8 abstracts)

Cytokine expression in SAT and VAT from PCOS patients and control women; possible proinflammatory effect of testosterone depending on BMI – a preliminary report

Nicolas Crisosto 1 , Barbara Echiburú 1, , Francisco Perez-Bravo 2 , Cristian Flores 1, , Cecilia Fuentes 3 , Mariana Cifuentes 3 , Omar Orellana 4 , Fernando Maluenda 5 & Teresa Sir-Petermann 1


1Laboratory of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, West Division, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile; 2Laboratory of Nutritional Genomics, Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile; 3Basic Nutrition and Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), University of Chile, Santiago, Chile; 4Surgery Unit, Hospital San Juan de Dios, Santiago, Chile; 5Surgery Unit, Clinica Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.


Context: Insulin resistance is an important component of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Local cytokine production in adipose tissue increases local insulin resistance. The effect of testosterone on local adipose tissue cytokine production has not been explored thoroughly.

Aim: To evaluate cytokine expression in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) from PCOS and control women and evaluate the response to testosterone on the later.

Methodology: We obtained serum samples and SAT by biopsy from ten PCOS and seven control women. In six different women (three PCOS and three controls) subjected to abdominal surgery we obtained samples from omental VAT that were incubated (300 mg each well) for 72 h in basal conditions or stimulated with 10-9M or 10-6 M testosterone (T). Expression of cytokines (I-1b, CCL-2, TNF-alpha and IL-6) in tissue samples was assessed by Real Time PCR. All women studied were 18–40 years old.

Results: Basal SAT and VAT cytokine expression and serum cytokine levels showed no differences between PCOS and control patients. Regarding stimulated tissue samples, there was no significant response to T in the total group or analysing PCOS or control patients independently. Nevertheless, in VAT samples from patients with a BMI between 30 and 40, regardless of their PCOS condition, we found a significant increase in the expression of CCl-2 (ddCt 1,83 (1.75–1.96; P=0.0036) and IL1b (ddCt:2.84 (2.52–3.7; P=0.0036) when stimulated with testosterone 10–6M.

Conclusions: SAT and VAT shows no significant differences in terms of basal cytokine expression between PCOS patients and control women. Nevertheless, in the subgroup of women with a BMI between 30 and 40, testosterone seems to have a proinflammatory effect in VAT. Thus, the effects of testosterone in terms of cytokine expression might be influenced by the presence of obesity.

Disclosure: This work was supported by FONDECYT INICIACION grant 11130126 and FONDECYT grant 1110864.

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