Associations of Plasma CD36 and Body Fat Distribution

Yeli Wang; Manja Koch; Romina di Giuseppe; Kirsten Evans; Jan Borggrefe; Ute Nöthlings; Aase Handberg; Majken K Jensen; Wolfgang Lieb

doi:10.1210/jc.2019-00368

Associations of Plasma CD36 and Body Fat Distribution

J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2019 Sep 1;104(9):4016-4023. doi: 10.1210/jc.2019-00368.

Authors

Yeli Wang¹, Manja Koch², Romina di Giuseppe³, Kirsten Evans², Jan Borggrefe⁴, Ute Nöthlings⁵, Aase Handberg^{6

7}, Majken K Jensen², Wolfgang Lieb³

Affiliations

¹ Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
² Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
³ Institute of Epidemiology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.
⁴ Department of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
⁵ Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
⁶ Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
⁷ Department of Clinical Medicine, The Faculty of Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.

PMID: 31034016
DOI: 10.1210/jc.2019-00368

Abstract

Context: CD36 is a class B scavenger-receptor involved in the uptake of fatty acids in liver and adipose tissue. It is unknown whether plasma CD36 levels are related to liver fat content or adipose tissue in the general population.

Methods: We measured plasma CD36 from 575 participants of the community-based PopGen cohort who underwent MRI to quantify visceral adipose tissue (VAT), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), and liver signal intensity (LSI), a proxy for liver fat content. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was defined as LSI ≥3.0 in the absence of high alcohol intake. The relations between plasma CD36 and body mass index (BMI), VAT, SAT, LSI, and NAFLD were evaluated via multivariable-adjusted linear and logistic regression analysis.

Results: Plasma CD36 concentrations were correlated with BMI (r = 0.11; P = 0.01), SAT (r = 0.16; P < 0.001), and VAT (r = 0.15, P < 0.001) but not with LSI (P = 0.44). In multivariable-adjusted regression models, mean BMI values rose across CD36 quartiles [quartile 1 (Q1), 27.8 kg/m2; Q4, 28.9 kg/m2; P-trend = 0.013). Similarly, VAT (Q1, 4.13 dm3; Q4, 4.71 dm3; P-trend < 0.001), and SAT (Q1, 7.61 dm3; Q4, 8.74 dm3; P-trend < 0.001) rose across CD36 quartiles. Plasma CD36 concentrations were unrelated to LSI (P-trend = 0.36) and NAFLD (P-trend = 0.64). Participants with NAFLD and elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT), a marker for liver damage, had higher CD36 compared with participants with NAFLD and normal ALT.

Conclusions: Higher plasma concentrations of CD36 were associated with greater general and abdominal adiposity but not with liver fat content or NAFLD in this community-based sample. However, plasma CD36 may reflect more severe liver damage in NAFLD.