Dehydroepiandrosterone and human adipose tissue

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether DHEA alters the proliferation and differentiation of human sc and visceral adipose cells in primary cultures. Method: Sc and omental adipose tissue was obtained from 10 female donors aged 36 +/- 3.6 yr with a body mass index (BMI) of 33 +/- 3.21 kg/m(2). Stromal vascular cells were isolated and cultured using modified procedures described by Entenmann and Hauner. For the proliferation assay, stromal-vascular cells from sc and visceral adipose tissue cultures were fed with proliferation media containing 0, 25 or 100 mu M DHEA for 3 days. At the end of this treatment period, two type cultures were prepared for determining their metabolic activity using the sulforhodamine B staining procedure. Results: The metabolic activity of proliferating human visceral adipose tissue was higher than sc adipose tissue. The activity of proliferating human visceral tissue cultures decreased more than the sc tissue as the level of DHEA in the cultures was increased. Conclusions: These data suggest that DHEA predominantly influences the proliferation and differentiation of human omental adipose tissue.