Increased low grade inflammatory serum markers in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and their relationship to PPARγ gene variants

The Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most frequent endocrine disorder in premenopausal women and is associated with features of the insulin resistance syndrome, altered glucose homeostasis, and central obesity. Inflammation appears to be a link between obesity and insulin resistance, because adipose tissue is one major source of proinflammatory cytokines. Since peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)gamma affects adipocyte differentiation as well as insulin sensitivity, we investigated whether the levels of proinflammatory factors in PCOS patients are related to sequence variations of the PPAR,; gene. Proinflammatory cytokine levels, i.e. IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-17 and TNF alpha, were evaluated in PCOS patients (n = 21) in comparison to obese controls (n = 120). Next to this the complete coding sequence of the PPAR gamma, gene was investigated by resequencing all probands. We show that the levels of IL-8 and IL-17 were unchanged, IL-1 beta, IL-6 and TNF alpha. were elevated and the level of IL-7 was decreased in PCOS patients compared to obese controls. Sequence analyses of the PPAR gamma gene indicated that neither the common polymorphisms P12A or H478 H, nor novel polymorphisms (E79Q, V32G, -39 T > C, c.480 +33 t > g,) or unique sequence variations (S22S, A23A, T41 A, S226C, K272T, 14841, c.819 +24 a > c) detected in this investigation revealed evidence for a direct association of PPAR gamma with altered IL-7, IL-1 beta, IL-6 and TNF alpha levels in PCOS patients. So, alterations in inflammatory serum markers appear to be a feature of PCOS per se, and are independent of PPAR gamma variants.