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Updated: Feb 4, 2026

Fat-Covered Islet Transplantation Using Epididymal White Adipose Tissue
Published on: May 25, 2021
Mapping glucose-induced hemodynamics in white fat depots with label-free optoacoustics
Nikolina-Alexia Fasoula1,2, Nikoletta Katsouli1,2, Michael Kallmayer3,4
1Chair of Biological Imaging, Central Institute for Translational Cancer Research (TranslaTUM), School of Medicine and Health, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Abstract:
Subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) hemodynamics is an indicator of cardiometabolic health. Herein, we demonstrate a non-invasive approach for imaging SAT hemodynamics in humans using multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT). We evaluated different SAT depots in individuals with low (< 24 kg/m²) and high (≥ 24 kg/m²) BMI, with each group consisting of 8 participants, during oral glucose challenges. Our results indicate a significant decrease in glucose-induced hyperemic responses within SAT for individuals with higher BMI, at 60 min postprandially. MSOT also revealed that abdominal SAT exhibited a more active hemodynamic status compared to femoral SAT in both groups when compared to baseline measurements. MSOT readouts were further validated against longitudinal blood tests of triglycerides, glucose, lactate, and cholesterol. We introduce MSOT as a new method for studying SAT hemodynamics across multiple depots in a single test, providing invaluable insights into SAT physiology related to BMI fluctuations and general cardiometabolic health.
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