Rc. Hickner et al., REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN INTERSTITIAL GLYCEROL CONCENTRATION IN SUBCUTANEOUS ADIPOSE-TISSUE OF WOMEN, American journal of physiology: endocrinology and metabolism, 36(5), 1997, pp. 1033-1038
The aims of this study were to I) compare two methods of determining i
nterstitial glycerol concentration in subcutaneous adipose tissue (AT)
and 2) determine whether there are regional differences in interstiti
al glycerol concentration in subcutaneous AT of nonobese, premenopausa
l women. Microdialysis probes were inserted under local anesthesia int
o the abdominal(2 probes) and femoral (1 probe) subcutaneous AT in eac
h subject (n = 5) and perfused with a Ringer solution containing 2.5 m
M glucose and glycerol in concentrations ranging from 0 to 900 mu M. M
icrodialysis probe relative recoveries and interstitial glycerol conce
ntrations were determined by the no-net-flux method (NNF) and the inte
rnal reference method (IR) with the use of [C-13]glycerol. Microdialys
is probe relative recoveries were 57.4 +/- 3.6% by NNF and 61.2 +/- 10
.1% by IR in femoral AT [P = not significant (NS)] and were 55.2 +/- 6
.0% by NNF and 66.6 +/- 4.2% by IR in abdominal AT (P = NS). The calcu
lated interstitial glycerol concentrations determined by NNF and IR we
re 236.4 +/- 42.7 and 241.1 +/- 39.6 mu M (P = NS) in femoral AT and 1
51.4 +/- 29.7 and 129.4 +/- 18.7 mu M in abdominal AT (NNF vs. IR, P =
NS; femoral vs. abdominal, P < 0.05). It can be concluded that the in
terstitial glycerol concentration in the femoral AT of nonobese, preme
nopausal females is similar to 240 mu M and is higher than in abdomina
l AT (140 mu M). Furthermore, the use of a stable isotope of glycerol
as an internal reference is suitable for determining interstitial glyc
erol concentrations in subcutaneous adipose tissue in humans at rest.