ESPE Abstracts

Objective: We aim to investigate the association among progranulin (PGRN), high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), and obesity related markers in young rat model of high fat diet-induced obesity.

Materials and Methods: 20 Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats at the age of 21 days were divided into two groups randomly. The rats were fed with normal diet (NC group) or high-fat diet (OB group). The NC group and OB group were sacrificed at the end of the forth week. The length, body weight, waist circumference (WC), liver weight, epididymal fat weight and Lee's index were measured or calculated. The serum level of ALT, AST, cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), high density lipoproteins (HDL), low density lipoproteins (LDL), fasting blood glucose (FBG),as well as fasting insulin (FINS) were measured, PGRN and HMGB1 in serum were detected by Elisa assay, while Western blot was used to detect the expression of PGRN and HMGB1 in liver and adipose tissue.

Results: The body weight, WC, liver weight, epididymal fat weight, and Lee's index of OB group were higher than those of NC group significantly(P<0.05). Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining showed that rats in OB group displayed mild to severe hepatic steatosis, while those in NC group were normal. Compared with the NC group, the serum level of FPG, HOMA-IR, cholesterol, TG, LDL, ALT, AST in OB group is remarkable higher(P<0.05). The FINS were slight elevated in OB group than those in NC group. Elisa array showed that PGRN and HMGB1 were significantly increased in OB group compared with those in NC group(P<0.05).The correlation analysis indicated that PGRN had significant positive correlation with ALT, AST, TG, LDL and HMGB1(P<0.05), while HMGB1 was positively correlated with ALT, AST, CHOL, TG, LDL and PGRN(P<0.05).Western blot demonstrated that compared with NC group, OB group had a higher expression of PGRN and HMGB1 in both of liver and adipose tissue(P<0.05).

Conclusions: PGRN, HMGB1 were associated with obesity and IR, They may be markers of obesity and related metabolism disease.