Obesity promotes lipid accumulation in lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer: a retrospective case-control study

Background The connection between obesity, lipid accumulation, and lymph node metastasis (LNM) in gastric cancer (GC) is unclear. Methods The association of body mass index (BMI) and serum lipid levels with LNM was measured by calculating the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) in 1,058 eligible GC patients with a mean age of 61.4 years. Meanwhile, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between lymph node metastasis-positive (N +) and -negative (N0) groups using public RNA-seq data. Neutral lipids in human GC samples were detected by Oil red O staining. The expression of cluster of differentiation 36 (CD36), fatty acid synthase (FASN), and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and quantitative real-time PCR. Results Compared with normal-weight patients, overweight (OR = 2.02, 95% CI = 1.26-3.23) and obese (OR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.15-2.91) patients showed increased ORs for LNM. However, no significant results were obtained for serum lipids in the multivariable-adjusted model (P > 0.05). Subgroup analysis suggested that increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol was a risk factor in females (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.02-1.59). Functional enrichment analysis of DEGs revealed a connection between lipid metabolism and LNM. Meanwhile, lipid staining showed a mass of lipids in obese N + tumor samples, and IHC analysis indicated an increase in LPL and CD36 expression in N + cases, implying a crucial role for exogenous lipid supply in LNM. Conclusions High BMI significantly increases the risk of LNM in GC and promotes lipid accumulation in GC cells in LNM.