Increased Level of Serum Ceramides Correlate with Liver Steatosis, Hba1c and Cholesterol in Obese Patients

Abstract

Pavlovskyi Leonid, Chernyavskyi Volodymyr, Shypulin Vadym, Kupchik Larisa, Tischenko Victoria

Objective: Sphingolipids including ceramides are biological active components of all cell membranes. They play a great role in cell interconnections in the process of proliferation, maturation, cell apoptosis and any fluctuations of their level can lead to development of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes (T2D) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Nevertheless, there is lack of information about what type of ceramides play a role in aforementioned diseases. Here we investigated the relationship between the serum level of some type of ceramides and parameters of metabolic syndrome that is commonly present in obese patients.

Design: We performed cross-sectional study in two groups. One of them was control group – lean healthy people (n=10, body mass index, BMI 21, 2±1, 89) and the second group included patients with the obesity (n=24, BMI 33, 9±3, 1). We quantified the levels of serum ceramide by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, analyzed the parameters for insulin resistance, liver function and lipid metabolism by biochemical blood test.

Results: The subjects with obesity had elevated level of ceramide C16:0, C18:0, C24:0 comparing with control group (p<0,001). As results of our study, we found correlation of the level ceramide C16:0, C18:0, C24:0 with the results of steatometry and some metabolic parameters (glycosylated hemoglobin (Hb A1C), cholesterol).

Conclusion: These results demonstrate that obese subjects had increased level of ceramide C16:0, C18:0, C24:0 that correlated with some metabolic parameters supposedly recognizing them as new biomarkers of metabolic syndrome.

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