Changes in Circulating Levels of Long Non-Coding RNA p5549 and p19461 Following Metabolic Bariatric Surgery (MBS): A Prospective Study

Obesity is attributed to a combination of factors such as lifestyle, environmental influences, and genetic background. Nowadays, the issue of obesity has grown to an epidemic scale. Environmental changes, having contributed to the sharp rise in obesity prevalence, are not the only contributing etiologic factors. Inherent biological variables interact with environmental factors resulting in obesity. Epigenetic mechanisms may explain part of obesity heritability. One of the recently discovered epigenetic mechanisms for controlling gene expression is long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Circulating lncRNA p5549 and p19461 levels were reported to be significantly lower in individuals with obesity. This study aimed to evaluate whether weight loss following metabolic/bariatric surgery (MBS) can be related to altered expression levels of those lncRNAs, which have been reported to be reduced in individuals with obesity.

Comparison of circulating levels of lncRNA p5549 and p19461 before and 12 weeks after MBS in thirty-four patients was conducted to evaluate whether MBS can revert the altered levels of these lncRNAs. None of the participating patients were lost to follow-up, and all underwent re-evaluation of post-surgical expression levels.

lncRNA p5549 expression levels in serum were found to increase significantly in the postoperative samples compared to preoperative samples (fold increase: 4.63 ± 7.68, p = 0.014).

Epigenetic changes in patients with obesity, specifically lncRNA-p5549 expression levels, are reversed after MBS. The postoperative increase in the expression levels of lncRNA- p19461 was not statistically significant.