Journal article
A distribution-centered approach for analyzing human adipocyte size estimates and their association with obesity-related traits and mitochondrial function
- Abstract:
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Objective: Cell diameter, area, and volume are established quantitative measures of adipocyte size. However, these different adipocyte sizing parameters have not yet been directly compared regarding their distributions. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate how these adipocyte size measures differ in their distribution and assessed their correlation with anthropometry and laboratory chemistry. In addition, we were interested to investigate the relationship between fat cell size and adipocyte mitochondrial respiratory chain capacity.
Methods: Subcutaneous and visceral histology-based adipocyte size estimates from 188 individuals were analyzed by applying a panel of parameters to describe the underlying cell population. Histology-based adipocyte diameter distributions were compared with adipocyte diameter distributions from collagenase digestion. Associations of mean adipocyte size with body mass index (BMI), glucose, HbA1C, blood lipids as well as mature adipocyte mitochondrial respiration were investigated.
Results: All adipocyte area estimates derived from adipose tissue histology were not normally distributed, but rather characterized by positive skewness. The shape of the size distribution depends on the adipocyte sizing parameter and on the method used to determine adipocyte size. Despite different distribution shapes histology-derived adipocyte area, diameter, volume, and surface area consistently showed positive correlations with BMI. Furthermore, associations between adipocyte sizing parameters and glucose, HbA1C, or HDL specifically in the visceral adipose depot were revealed. Increasing subcutaneous adipocyte diameter was negatively correlated with adipocyte mitochondrial respiration.
Conclusions: Despite different underlying size distributions, the correlation with obesity-related traits was consistent across adipocyte sizing parameters. Decreased mitochondrial respiratory capacity with increasing subcutaneous adipocyte diameter could display a novel link between adipocyte hypertrophy and adipose tissue function.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, 934.1KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41366-021-00883-6
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- International Journal of Obesity More from this journal
- Volume:
- 45
- Issue:
- 9
- Pages:
- 2108-2117
- Publication date:
- 2021-06-25
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-06-10
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1476-5497
- ISSN:
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0307-0565
- Pmid:
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34172828
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1184660
- Local pid:
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pubs:1184660
- Deposit date:
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2021-09-23
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Honecker et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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