Metabolic effects of nicotine on human adipose tissue in organ culture

✍ Scribed by T. Chajek-Shaul; G. Scherer; V. Barash; E. Shiloni; Y. Caine; O. Steins; Y. Stein

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 548 KB
• Volume: 72
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0946-2716
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00184583

✦ Synopsis

Fragments of human adipose tissue were maintained in culture for 1 week in a medium containing I mU/ml insulin and 100 ng/ml dexamethasone. Under these conditions lipoprotein lipase activity was present in human adipose tissue fragments which converted [~¢C]glucose to t4CO2 and [14C]triglyceride. Both metabolic parameters studied were affected by human tumor necrosis factor and brefeldin A. When fragments of human adipose tissue after 1 week in culture were incubated with nicotine tartrate for 20 h, a slight but significant increase in lipoprotein lipase activity was observed, and an increased conversion of [l~C]glucose to ~CO2 and [14C]triglyceride occurred. Nicotin was taken up by human adipose tissue, but no conversion to cotinine was observed. Our data demonstrate a direct effect of nicotine on human adipose tissue metabolism. Furthermore, it is suggested that weight loss in smokers is a multifactorial phenomenon, and one of the important factors to be considered is the direct effect of nicotine within the tissue.