Metabolic Health Status Contributes to Transcriptome Alternation in Human Visceral Adipose Tissue During Obesity
Qiuzhong Zhou1, Zhenzhen Fu2, Yingyun Gong2
1Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore.
Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.)
|September 28, 2020
Summary
Obesity alters gene expression in visceral fat, increasing inflammation. Metabolically healthy obesity shows less inflammation than unhealthy obesity, highlighting the role of metabolic status in obesity-related transcriptional changes.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Metabolic Health
- Adipose Tissue Biology
Background:
- Body Mass Index (BMI) significantly impacts adipose tissue transcriptome.
- Limited research exists on transcriptional changes in visceral adipose tissue related to metabolic health in obesity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate transcriptome differences in visceral adipose tissue between lean, metabolically healthy obese (MHO), and metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO) individuals.
- To identify specific gene expression patterns associated with metabolic health status in obesity.
Main Methods:
- Visceral adipose tissue samples were collected from lean (n=11), MHO (n=22), and MUO (n=26) participants.
- RNA sequencing was performed to analyze transcriptome-wide gene expression.
- Pairwise comparisons were conducted between the three groups.
Main Results:
- Obesity, irrespective of metabolic health, upregulated inflammatory pathways in visceral adipose tissue compared to lean individuals.
- Metabolically unhealthy obesity exhibited a stronger inflammatory signature than metabolically healthy obesity.
- 34 common differentially expressed genes were identified between MUO, MHO, and lean groups, with 12 genes linked to inflammation showing increased expression from lean to MHO to MUO.
Conclusions:
- BMI is a key determinant of visceral adipose tissue gene expression.
- Metabolic health status significantly modulates inflammatory transcriptional changes during obesity, with healthier individuals showing a less pronounced inflammatory response.
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