Expression of ceramide-metabolising enzymes in subcutaneous and intra-abdominal human adipose tissue

Table 3 Correlations between sphingomyelinase, ceramidase and sphingosine kinase gene expression, and ceramide and sphingomyelin concentrations in subcutaneous adipose tissue

	SMPD1		SMPD2		SMPD3		ASAH1		SPHK1
	r	P	r	P	r	P	r	P	r	P
Cer(d18:0/22:0)	0.380	0.097	−0.170	0.459	0.244	0.288	0.005	0.984	0.259	0.260
Cer(d18:1/16:0)	0.065	0.778	0.089	0.699	0.498	0.030	0.047	0.839	0.361	0.116
Cer(d18:1/24:1)	0.408	0.076	0.283	0.218	0.552	0.016	0.344	0.133	0.526	0.022
SM(d18:1/16:0)	0.135	0.555	0.020	0.932	0.211	0.359	−0.310	0.177	−0.203	0.376
SM(d18:1/18:0)	0.281	0.220	0.411	0.074	0.496	0.031	−0.164	0.475	0.215	0.349
SM(d18:1/20:0)	0.398	0.082	0.376	0.101	0.555	0.016	−0.338	0.140	0.492	0.032
SM(d18:1/22:0)	0.331	0.149	0.356	0.120	0.595	0.009	0.075	0.743	0.474	0.039
SM(d18:1/22:1)	0.415	0.070	0.290	0.206	0.582	0.011	−0.081	0.723	0.445	0.052
SM(d18:1/24:1)	0.253	0.271	0.423	0.066	0.567	0.014	0.167	0.467	0.289	0.208
SM(d18:1/24:2)	0.329	0.151	0.319	0.165	0.513	0.025	−0.033	0.885	0.405	0.078

Correlations between gene expression levels of SMPD1-3 (sphingomyelinases), ASAH1 (ceramidase) and SPHK1 (sphingosine kinase) and concentrations of various ceramides (cer) and sphingomyelins (SM) in subcutaneous adipose tissue of obese women (n = 20). Spearman rank correlation coefficients and significance levels are shown. Comparison of sphingolipid concentrations (mean ± SEM, nmol/g adipose tissue) in subcutaneous adipose tissue from women with less inflamed adipose tissue/normal liver fat (n = 10) versus more inflamed adipose tissue/high liver fat content (n = 10), as reported previously [3]: Cer(d18:0/22:0): 3.80 ± 0.58 vs 6.21 ± 1.11, P = 0.076; Cer(d18:1/16:0): 2.66 ± 0.28 vs 3.12 ± 0.23, P = 0.219; Cer(d18:1/24:1): 5.36 ± 0.47 vs 7.97 ± 0.70, P = 0.006; SM(d18:1/16:0): 36.86 ± 2.64 vs 35.10 ± 2.64, P = 0.643; SM(d18:1/18:0): 4.88 ± 0.40 vs 6.02 ± 0.46, P = 0.077; SM(d18:1/20:0): 5.84 ± 0.50 vs 7.30 ± 0.52, P = 0.055; SM(d18:1/22:0): 11.38 ± 0.96 vs 15.38 ± 1.15, P = 0.015; SM(d18:1/22:1): 7.13 ± 0.54 vs 8.54 ± 0.67, P = 0.121; SM(d18:1/24:1): 17.00 ± 1.33 vs 22.96 ± 1.70, P = 0.013; SM(d18:1/24:2): 7.42 ± 0.56 vs 9.69 ± 0.76, P = 0.028. Lipidomic analysis was described previously [3].

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