Comparison of Lipid and Fatty Acid Composition of the Liver, Subcutaneous and Intra-abdominal Adipose Tissue, and Serum

Ceramides may mediate saturated fat-induced insulin resistance, but there are no data comparing ceramide concentrations between human tissues. We therefore performed lipidomic analysis of human subcutaneous (SCfat) and intra-abdominal (IAfat) adipose tissue, the liver, and serum in eight subjects. The liver contained (nmol/mg tissue) significantly more ceramides (1.5-3-fold), sphingomyelins (7-8-fold), phosphatidylethanolamines (10-11-fold), lysophosphatidylcholines (7-12-fold), less ether-linked phosphatidylcholines (2-2.5-fold) but similar amounts of diacylglycerols as compared to SCfat and IAfat. The amounts of ceramides and their synthetic precursors, such as palmitic (16:0) free fatty acids and sphingomyelins, differed considerably between the tissues. The liver contained proportionally more palmitic, stearic (18:0), and long polyunsaturated fatty acids than adipose tissues. Stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1) activity reflected by serum, estimated from the 16:1/16:0-ratio, was closely related to that in the liver (r = 0.86, P = 0.024) but not adipose tissues. This was also true for estimated elongase (18:1/16:1, r = 0.89, P = 0.01), and Delta5 (20:4/20:3, r = 0.89, P = 0.012) and Delta6 (18:3[n-6]/18:2, r = 1.0, P < 0.001) desaturase activities. We conclude that the human liver contains higher concentrations of ceramides and saturated free fatty acids than either SCfat or IAfat.