Background: Hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) plays a central role in free fatty acid homeostasis in adipose tissue and in pancreatic beta-cells, where it contributes to the control of insulin secretion by generating long-chain fatty acids.
Aim: We examined the frequency and association of the functional HSL promoter variant, -60C>G, in a German cohort of morbidly obese women (N=239) and men (N=55) and compared the frequency to a cohort of 199 blood donors, recruited from the same region.
Results: The rare allele frequency of -60C>G, in the obese individuals was significantly lower 0.031 (95% CI 0.02, 0.04), than that in the blood donors 0.061 (95% CI 0.04, 0.08) p=0.05. The association of the HSL -60C>G with lipid and glucose parameters was examined in the obese women (there were too few men for comparative analysis). In the obese women, those heterozygous for the -60G had significantly higher glucose levels compared to CC women, 142.71 (+/-16.23) mg/dl vs. 110.34 (+/-1.79) mg/dl, respectively (p=0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference in other parameters.
Conclusion: This study confirms a role for HSL in glucose homeostasis and the reduced frequency of the low expressing -60G promoter variant in obese individuals, together with existing published data, suggests that this allele might be protective against obesity.