Abstract
Background. Obesity is a high risk factor for many cancers, especially endometrial cancer. However, the effect of a single obesity factor on endometrial cancer has not been reported. Moreover, the characteristics of changes in serum lipid metabolites in obese patients are not clear. Methods. BMI, clinical data, lipids and pathological findings of 240 endometrial cancer patients were collected to analyse pathological differences between different BMI groups. Ishikawa and HEC-1A cells were treated with serum from obese and non-obese postmenopausal women, and the migration, invasion and proliferation of the two groups of cells were tested. LC-MS/MS technique was applied to detect the differences in lipid metabolism between obese and non-obese serum from postmenopausal women. Results. Endometrial cancer patients in the obese group had worse pathological staging. Also endometrial cancer patients with concomitant hyperlipidaemia had deeper myometrial infiltration. Endometrial cancer cells with obese serum effects had higher migration, invasion and proliferation. A total of 994 metabolites were identified in this study. 56 different metabolites were determined between the obese and non-obese groups. In the POS mode, DG35:3, DG 32:1lDG 14:0_18:1, DG 32:0, DG 34:1, TG 24:0lTG 8:0_8:0_8:0, TG O-32:1lTG O-16:1_8:0_8:0, TG 48:1lTG 14:0_16:0_18:1, TG 46:1lTG 14:0_16:0_16:1, TG 48:3lTG 14:0_16:1_18:2, CE 17:0, PI 32:1, DG 35:3lDG 17:1_18:2, TG 45:2lTG 11:0_16:0_18:2, TG 46:0lTG 14:0_16:0_16:0 were significantly downregulated in postmenopausal obese women, while the total level of PCs, DG 38:1, DG 48:6, PI-Cer 31:0;2O, SE 29:1/18:2, AHexCer 45:5;3OlAHexCer(O-15:1)30:4;3O, CAR 12:0, CAR 16:2, CAR 14:1, CAR 11:0, PE P-36:3|PE P-16:1_20:2, ASG 27:1;O, Hex, FA 10:0 were upregulated. In the NEG mode, LPE 16:0, LPE 22:5, LPE 20:3, PI 34:2|PI 16:0_18:2, PI 34:1|PI 16:0_18:1, PI 37:4|PI 17:0_20:4, PI 35:2|PI 17:0_18:2, PI 36:4|PI 16:0_20:4, PE-Cer 34:2;2O, PE 36:1;O|PE 18:1_18:0;2O, Cer 42:3;2O|Cer 18:2;2O/24:1, FA 24:6, FA 27:0, FA 20:4;O, FA 20:5 were downregulated in the obese group. SHexCer 40:1;2O, SHexCer, 42:3;2O, SHexCer 42:2;2O, SM 40:1;3O, PEO-44:8|PE O-22:2_22:6, PE O-46:8|PE, O-24:2_22:6, PE O-42:8|PE O-20:2_22:6 were upregulated in the obese group. Conclusions. The results of this study suggested that obesity might promote the progression of endometrial cancer. Changes in lipid metabolism suggested risk factors for endometrial cancer in postmenopausal obese women.