Exposure to lipophilic environmental pollutants has been explored as a risk factor of development of diabetes mellitus in obese. Adipose tissue is a reservoir of bioaccumulative lipophilic contaminants including p,pʹ-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE).
Our aim was to analyze the effect of DDE (in concentrations 0.1 μM, 1 μM, and 10 μM) on adipocyte differentiation and insulin signalling pathway on in vitro adipogenic model of human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADMSC). The effect of DDE was monitored by analysis of expression (RT qPCR, Western blotting) of genes (INSR, LIPE, FASN, SREBP1, OCT4 and AKT2)involved in adipocyte differentiation and insulin signalling pathway including lipid metabolism on days 0, 4, 10, 21, 28 of differentiation.Our findings suggest that DDE exposure changes the differentiation of adipocytes, enhances the lipid metabolism and so may play a role in the development of obesity and metabolic diseases by affecting the insulin signalling pathway.
The influence of DDE seems to be similar to the effect of insulin itself. However, further studies to elucidate the mechanism of action of DDE are necessary.