Distribution of fatty acids in adipose tissue of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Background: It is not known whether alterations of adipose tissue fatty acid compositions predict type 2 diabetes. Our goal was to characterize the relationship between the adipose tissue fatty acid compositions and type 2 diabetes.

Methods: We evaluated the fatty acid compositions of subcutaneous adipose tissue. These analyses were carried out on samples from 76 normal and 98 diabetic adults. Analysis was performed on a gas chromatograph.

Results: The adipose tissue palmitic acid composition of diabetic subjects (24.9% +/- 0.3) was significantly higher (p = 0.01) than in the controls (23.3% +/- 1.6). A significant negative correlation (r = -0.276, p = 0.001) was found between adipose tissue polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and the Chol/HDL-C ratio of all the subjects studied (controls plus diabetic patients). A similar negative correlation (r = -0.429, p = 0.001) was identified only for control group, whereas no significant correlation (p > 0.05) was found for diabetic populations. The correlation between fatty acid compositions and serum lipid profiles (TG, HDL-C, Chol/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C proportion) and fasting blood sugar (FBS) with HbAlc concentrations of people with diabetes and controls was not significant.

Conclusions: A high amount of palmitic acid in adipose tissue may increase the risk of the type 2 diabetes and it seems that a high intake of PUFAs can lead to lowering of the Chol/HDL-C ratio.