Background: Multiple symmetric lipomatosis (MSL) is a rare disease showing chronic progression of multiple, symmetrical, and non-encapsulated subcutaneous lipoma. The cause of the disease remains unknown.
Patients and Methods: This study reported and summarized 13 sporadic cases of Type I MSL patients in terms of histopathology and cellular and molecular biology and assessed the CBLB c.197A>T mutation in the IRS1-PI3K-Akt pathway.
Results: The clinical data showed that these 13 Type I patients were all male with a mean age of 57.0 ± 6.6 years old and consumed alcohol heavily. The laboratory tests revealed that most of the patients had hyperuricemia, diabetes, hyperinsulinemia, or insulin resistance; however, their blood lipid levels were close to a normal range. The imaging data exhibited lipomas that only occurred subcutaneously but not viscerally, ie, Types Ia (15.4%), Ib (30.8%), and Ic (53.8%). The molecular analyses of adipocytes of isoprenaline stimulated human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hADSCs) isolated from the adipose tissue lipoma-like masses (ATLLM) demonstrated that these adipocytes did not express UCP-1. The Cbl proto-oncogene B (CBLB), an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase, was associated with insulin resistance and obesity and was mutated (ie, CBLB c.197A>T) in four MSL patients after the whole genome and Sanger sequencing of the blood samples. Furthermore, the CBLB c.197A>T mutation induced hADSC resistance to insulin by inactivation of the IRS-1-PI3K-AKT pathway.
Conclusion: This study analyzed clinical, histopathological, and cellular and molecular biological characterizations of 13 Type I MSL patients and identified the CBLB c.197A>T heterozygous mutation that could be responsible for MSL metabolic dysfunction or even MSL development.
Keywords: multiple symmetric lipomatosis, MSL, manifestation, characterization, CBLB