Fatty acid serum composition and genetic polymorphisms of fatty acid binding protein-2 in elderly subjects with metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of metabolic abnormalities including dyslipidemia. FABP2 genetic polymorphism might affect serum lipid concentrations and therefore it would be interesting to investigate its association with fatty acid composition. The cross-sectional study included 21 men and 67 women older than 70 years. International Diabetes Federation criteria was used for determination of MetS. Serum lipids were determined with standard enzymatic methods. FABP2 genetic polymorphism Ala54Thr was performed using PCR-RFLP method. The fatty acids (FA) analysis was done after extraction of total lipids from serum with mixture of isopropanol/chlorophorm(1.5:1 v/v) and the composition of FA was performed by gas chromatography on SRI 8610C Gas chromatograph. Median concentrations of C14 (myristic acid) was significantly higher in subjects with MetS than in those without MetS (635 vs. 468 mg/mL, p = 0.026), while median concentrations of C20:4(n-6) (all-cis-5, 8, 11, 14-eicosatetraenoic acid) was significantly higher in rare allele carriers than in non-carriers (1719 vs.516 mg/mL, p = 0.014). Weak Spearman rank correlations of C14 with triglyceride and total cholesterol concentrations was also observed (rho = 0.335, p = 0.002 and rho = 0.237, P = 0.027, respectively. Composition of serum fatty acids might be associated with MetS and FABP2 genetic polymorphism Ala54Thr. Therefore it might be useful to analyses fatty acids for better understanding of MetS etiology.