High-fat diet feeding induces organ-specific vascular remodeling with distinct temporal dynamics in male mice

Obesity-induced changes in adipose vasculature are well documented, but systematic analyses in other tissues have not been as extensive. Here, we analyze the vessel-covered area and endothelial cell (EC) numbers in seven non-adipose organs (liver, heart, intestine, kidney, lung, ear skin, retina) in male mice after short-term high-fat diet (HFD) feeding (5 days or 5 weeks), long-term HFD feeding (10 weeks), and weight loss (5 weeks of HFD followed by 5 weeks of chow feeding). We show HFD-induced morphological changes in the liver, heart, kidney, and intestinal vasculatures, and a negative correlation between body weight and vessel density in most of the analyzed tissues. Interestingly, changes in vessel area do not always reflect alterations in EC numbers. Additionally, both the intestine and ear skin show preserved vessel perfusion in response to obesity. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of how different HFD feeding durations affect organotypic vasculature and reports that HFD feeding induces organ-specific vascular remodeling with distinct temporal dynamics in mice.