Within all rat strains, abdominal adipocyte FAAH activity correlated molecular weight calculator positively with body mass. There was no correlation between blood glucose levels and FAAH activity . however, when the diabetic animals were removed from this analysis, a posi tive correlation was observed between FAAH activity and blood glucose in the subcutaneous and abdominal adipo cytes. In subcutaneous adipocytes, MGL activities for the obese and obese diabetic rats were 18 and 12 fold increased com pared to the lean animals. In abdominal adipocytes the corresponding values were 5 and 3 fold, respectively, and in epididymal adipocytes, MGL activity was 5 and 3. 5 fold increased. A positive relationship was identified between MGL activity and body mass in all adipose tissues.

MGL activity also correlated with blood glucose levels in adipocytes from all three adipose tis sue depots, and this effect became stronger when the diabetic rats were removed. The effects of adipose depots on FAAH and MGL activity In the lean rats, there was no significant difference in FAAH activity between adipose depots, but MGL activity was found to be lower in the subcutaneous adipo cytes than either the abdominal and epididymal adipocytes. In the obese and obese diabetic rats, neither FAAH nor MGL activity in adipocytes differed between the three adipose tissue depots tested. Similarly, in human adipocytes, FAAH and MGL activities did not differ be tween paired subcutaneous and visceral adipocytes. All sub sequent analysis was carried out in subcutaneous adipocytes.

FAAH and MGL activity in obese patients The physiological characteristics of these severely obese patients are given in Table 1, which shows the sample divided into three groups patients with clinically diag nosed T2M, patients without T2M but with at least three markers of metabolic syndrome, and patients without diabetes and with only one or two markers of metabolic syndrome. Be tween these groups, age, BMI, fasting serum insulin con centration, HOMA and mean arterial pressure did not differ. The mean fasting serum glucose concentration and HbA1c were higher in the diabetic group than both the healthy and metabolic syndrome groups. Patients in all groups were prescribed similar medica tions for dyslipidaemia and hypertension, but 5 patients in the diabetic group were taking hypoglycaemic medica tion compared to none in the healthy and metabolic syn drome groups.

Within this sample of obese patients, neither FAAH ac tivity nor MGL activity in subcutaneous adipocytes corre lated with BMI GSK-3 or waist circumference, although there was a trend for a positive correlation between MGL activ ity and BMI. Removing patients with diabetes revealed a significant correlation be tween MGL and BMI. FAAH and MGL activity were not correlated with various skinfold measurements. There was a trend for a negative correlation between FAAH activity and neck cir cumference.