Procyanidins target mesenteric adipose tissue in Wistar lean rats and subcutaneous adipose tissue in Zucker obese rat

Visceral and subcutaneous adipose depots have different metabolic roles that may be involved in the development of obesity-related pathologies. Procyanidins have beneficial effects on insulin resistance, and they target adipose tissue. We analyse whether procyanidins exert different effects, depending on the adipose tissue depot, and whether these effects show a relation to the amount of phenolic compound in the tissue. We studied the effects of a grape seed procyanidin extract (GSPE) treatment at the transcriptional level on genes expressed differentially between mesenteric and subcutaneous adipose tissue depots and genes previously shown to be targets of procyanidins. Procyanidins target mesenteric adipose tissue in Wistar lean rats but subcutaneous adipose tissue in Zucker obese rats. Non-modified structures also accumulated, preferentially in the same respective tissues that were responsive to GSPE. Thus, procyanidins target and accumulate differently in mesenteric and subcutaneous adipose tissue depots, depending on the metabolic condition of the animal model.