Associations of Betatrophin/ANGPTL8 with Septic Dyslipidemia in Human Peritonitis: An Explorative Analysis

Figures

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  Figure 1. Circulating levels and adipose tissue expression of betatrophin/ANGPTL8. (A) Circulating betatrophin/ANGPTL8 was significantly increased in septic (p = 0.009 after post hoc correction, n = 16) and non-significantly increased in insulin-resistant subjects (p = 0.053 after post hoc correction, n = 32) as compared to metabolically healthy controls with absent inflammation (n = 18; overall significance according to Kruskal–Wallis p = 0.009). (B) Betatrophin/ANGPTL8 gene expression in VAT was comparable between groups (sepsis, n = 13; insulin resistance, n = 32, controls n = 18). IR, insulin resistance; VAT, visceral adipose tissue. Dots are colored according to group identities given on the x-axis. ** p < 0.01 in Kruskal-Wallis test and post-hoc Dunn correction.

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  Figure 2. Correlation analysis of betatrophin/ANGPTL8 circulating levels and VAT mRNA expression. Correlations were observed in subjects free from inflammation and metabolic dysregulation (r = 0.61; p = 0.008) and in insulin-resistant patients (r = 0.43; p = 0.034), but not in the sepsis group (r = −0.32; p = 0.34). IR, insulin resistance; VAT, visceral adipose tissue. Dots are colored according to group identities given in panel titles.

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  Figure 3. Correlation analysis of circulating betatrophin/ANGPTL8 and TAG (r = 0.46; p < 0.001). IR, insulin resistance; TAG, triacylglycerides.

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  Figure 4. Stratification of circulating betatrophin/ANGPTL8 according to hypertriacylglyceridemia. Levels of circulating betatrophin/ANGPTL8 were significantly increased exclusively in septic patients with concurrent hypertriacylglyceridemia > 1.7 mmol/l (“yes”, n = 7) compared to septic subjects and controls with absent dyslipidemia (“no”, n = 6 and n = 15, respectively; p = 0.017 and p = 0.0015 after post hoc correction, overall significance according to Kruskal–Wallis p = 0.0025). No significant effects became apparent in the insulin-resistance group (p > 0.05; “yes”, n = 21; “no”, n = 11). IR, insulin resistance. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01 in Kruskal-Wallis test and post-hoc Dunn correction.