The gender- and fat depot-specific regulation of leptin, resistin and adiponectin genes expression by progesterone in rat

Progesterone affects lipid metabolism in adipose tissue and influences fat distribution in human. The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of progesterone on rat body and fat mass and on expression of genes encoding adipokines involved in the regulation of energy homeostasis. The results presented here indicate that progesterone administration to females caused increase in body and inguinal white adipose tissue mass. The increase of inguinal white adipose tissue mass is associated with the hypertrophy of adipocyte. The same dose of progesterone caused increase of its circulating concentration in males, however it barely reached the value observed in non-treated control females and did not have any effect on body and fat mass. The elevated circulating progesterone concentration was associated with an approximately 6- and 2-fold increase of leptin and resistin mRNA level respectively, and 2-fold decrease of adiponectin mRNA level only in inguinal white adipose tissue of females. RU 486, specific antagonist of progesterone receptor, abolished the effect of progesterone on the adipokine mRNA level in inguinal adipose tissue. In males, the elevated circulating progesterone concentration showed no effects on leptin, resistin or adiponectin mRNA level in inguinal, retroperitoneal or epididymal adipose tissue. Moreover, the results presented in this paper demonstrate a relatively high level of progesterone receptor mRNA in inguinal white adipose tissue of females, which was down-regulated in response to progesterone administration. In retroperitoneal adipose tissue of control females progesterone receptor mRNA level was approximately 3-fold lower as compared to inguinal adipose tissue. In inguinal, epididymal and retroperitoneal white adipose tissue of males progesterone receptor mRNA was hardly detected. Our results suggest that depot- and sex-dependent responsiveness of adipose tissue to the pharmacological dose of progesterone is controlled by both circulating concentration of progesterone and the white adipose tissue progesterone receptor level.