Mengying Wang1,2, Qiaochu Xue2, Xiang Li2, Knut Krohn3, Stefanie Ziesche4, Uta Ceglarek5, Matthias Blüher4,6, Maria Keller4,6, Anat Yaskolka Meir7, Yoriko Heianza2, Peter Kovacs4, Iris Shai7, Lu Qi2,8. 1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China. 2. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA,USA. 3. Core Unit DNA Technologies, Medical Faculty, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany. 4. Medical Department III-Endocrinology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany. 5. Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany. 6. Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Leipzig and University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. 7. Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. 8. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Little is known about the relations between changes in circulating microRNA-122 (miR-122) and liver fat in response to weight-loss interventions. We aimed to investigate the association between miR-122 and changes of hepatic fat content during 18-month diet and physical activity interventions. METHODS: The CENTRAL trial is an 18-month randomized, controlled trial among adults with abdominal obesity or dyslipidemia. Subjects were randomly assigned to a low-fat diet or a Mediterranean/low-carbohydrate diet. After 6 months of dietary intervention, each diet group was further randomized into added physical activity groups or no added physical activity groups for the following 12 months of intervention. The current study included 220 participants at baseline and 134 participants with repeated measurements on serum miR-122 and hepatic fat content over 18 months. RESULTS: Serum miR-122 significantly increased from baseline to 18 months, while no difference was observed across the 4 intervention groups. We found a significant association between miR-122 and hepatic fat content at baseline, as per unit increment in log-transformed miR-122 was associated with 3.79 higher hepatic fat content (P < 0.001). Furthermore, we found that higher elevations in miR-122 were associated with less reductions in hepatic fat percentage during 18-month interventions (β = 1.56, P = 0.002). We also found a significant interaction between changes in miR-122 and baseline fasting plasma glucose with hepatic fat content changes in 18 months (P interaction = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that participants with higher elevation in serum miR-122 may benefit less in reduction of hepatic fat content in response to diet and physical activity interventions.
PURPOSE: Little is known about the relations between changes in circulating microRNA-122 (miR-122) and liver fat in response to weight-loss interventions. We aimed to investigate the association between miR-122 and changes of hepatic fat content during 18-month diet and physical activity interventions. METHODS: The CENTRAL trial is an 18-month randomized, controlled trial among adults with abdominal obesity or dyslipidemia. Subjects were randomly assigned to a low-fat diet or a Mediterranean/low-carbohydrate diet. After 6 months of dietary intervention, each diet group was further randomized into added physical activity groups or no added physical activity groups for the following 12 months of intervention. The current study included 220 participants at baseline and 134 participants with repeated measurements on serum miR-122 and hepatic fat content over 18 months. RESULTS: Serum miR-122 significantly increased from baseline to 18 months, while no difference was observed across the 4 intervention groups. We found a significant association between miR-122 and hepatic fat content at baseline, as per unit increment in log-transformed miR-122 was associated with 3.79 higher hepatic fat content (P < 0.001). Furthermore, we found that higher elevations in miR-122 were associated with less reductions in hepatic fat percentage during 18-month interventions (β = 1.56, P = 0.002). We also found a significant interaction between changes in miR-122 and baseline fasting plasma glucose with hepatic fat content changes in 18 months (P interaction = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that participants with higher elevation in serum miR-122 may benefit less in reduction of hepatic fat content in response to diet and physical activity interventions.
Authors: Francisco José Ortega; Josep María Mercader; Victoria Catalán; José María Moreno-Navarrete; Neus Pueyo; Mónica Sabater; Javier Gómez-Ambrosi; Roger Anglada; José Antonio Fernández-Formoso; Wifredo Ricart; Gema Frühbeck; José Manuel Fernández-Real Journal: Clin Chem Date: 2013-02-08 Impact factor: 8.327