Relation of depot-specific adipose inflammation to insulin resistance in human obesity
Open Access
- 5 March 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nutrition & Diabetes
- Vol. 2 (3), e30
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nutd.2012.3
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A low-grade state of adipose tissue inflammation associated with obesity has been linked to mechanisms of systemic metabolic dysfunction. However, the relation of clinical phenotypes to depot-specific inflammation has not been well examined in human obesity. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the inflammatory status of subcutaneous and visceral fat depots, as assessed by tissue presence of macrophage crown-like structures (CLS) as a hallmark of chronic inflammation, and determine the relation of systemic insulin resistance to inflammatory abnormalities in subcutaneous and visceral fat. METHODS: We collected adipose tissue simultaneously from subcutaneous and visceral (omental and mesenteric) depots in 92 obese participants (age 42±11 years; BMI⩾30 kg m−2) during planned bariatric surgery. Using immunohistochemistry, we categorized individuals as CLS+ or CLS− based on the presence or absence, respectively, of macrophage CLS in subcutaneous (CLSs), omental (CLSo) and mesenteric (CLSm) adipose depots. RESULTS: The majority of participants exhibited adipose tissue inflammation manifest by the presence of CLS (CLS+) in both subcutaneous and intra-abdominal visceral depots. CLS status in subcutaneous fat was highly sensitive and modestly specific for inflammation of visceral fat. In multivariable models, plasma insulin and homeostatis model assessment levels were positively associated with CLS+ status in all depots independent of age, waist circumference, BMI and type 2 diabetes, and worsened with the increasing number of adipose regions involved. CONCLUSIONS: In severely obese participants, systemic insulin resistance is linked to adipose inflammation in both subcutaneous and visceral depots. The findings suggest that examination of subcutaneous regions that are more easily accessible by transcutaneous biopsy may prove useful in clinical studies designed to investigate adipose phenotypes in relation to human disease.Keywords
This publication has 42 references indexed in Scilit:
- Reduced Adipose Tissue Inflammation Represents an Intermediate Cardiometabolic Phenotype in ObesityJournal of the American College of Cardiology, 2011
- Sfrp5 Is an Anti-Inflammatory Adipokine That Modulates Metabolic Dysfunction in ObesityScience, 2010
- Lipid-induced insulin resistance: unravelling the mechanismThe Lancet, 2010
- Inflammatory Mediators and Insulin Resistance in Obesity: Role of Nuclear Receptor Signaling in MacrophagesMediators of Inflammation, 2010
- Adipocyte Apoptosis, a Link between Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Hepatic Steatosis*Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2010
- Visceral ObesityHypertension, 2009
- Gene Expression Patterns in Visceral and Subcutaneous Adipose Depots in Rats are Linked to Their Morphologic FeaturesCellular Physiology and Biochemistry, 2009
- Adipose Macrophage Infiltration Is Associated With Insulin Resistance and Vascular Endothelial Dysfunction in Obese SubjectsArteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 2008
- Obesity-associated improvements in metabolic profile through expansion of adipose tissueJCI Insight, 2007
- Inflammation and insulin resistanceJCI Insight, 2006