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Ultrastructure of the adipose tissue matrix in children with malnutrition
1Department of Histology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timişoara, România.
Insights
Pediatric malnutrition significantly alters white adipose tissue extracellular matrix, affecting capillary integrity and ground substance. These ultrastructural changes in interadipocyte spaces correlate with malnutrition severity.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Endocrinology
- Cell Biology
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- White adipose tissue (WAT) plays a crucial role in energy homeostasis.
- Ultrastructural changes in WAT can indicate metabolic dysfunction.
- Malnutrition in children leads to significant physiological challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the ultrastructural modifications in the interadipocyte spaces of white adipose tissue in children with malnutrition.
- To correlate observed changes with the degree of malnutrition.
Main Methods:
- Bioptic samples of adipose white tissue from the trochanterian area of children aged 2-22 months were examined.
- Ultrastructural investigation focused on interadipocyte spaces and their components.
- Comparison between normal children and those with clinical malnutrition.
Main Results:
- Significant disorganization and disappearance of basal membranes of capillaries and glycolema were observed.
- Endothelial cell modifications, capillary wall lesions, and degraded red blood cells were noted.
- Alterations in ground substance, reduced collagen fibers, and fibrinoid-like material release were evident, with some spaces showing lipid infiltration.
Conclusions:
- Malnutrition induces severe ultrastructural damage to white adipose tissue, impacting cellular elements like adipocytes, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells.
- These cellular lesions lead to alterations in extracellular matrix components, including glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans.
- The observed changes highlight the profound impact of malnutrition on adipose tissue structure and function in early childhood.
Abstract:
Bioptic fragments of adipose white tissue taken from trochanterian area from children of 2-22 months old were ultrastructurally investigated. Children were of both sexes, 5 normal and 22 with clinical diagnosis of malnutrition. There were studied many interadipocyte spaces signalling out in cases with malnutrition modifications of different components, some of them related with the degree of malnutrition. There were noted: disorganisation and disappearance of basal membranes of capillaries and glycolema; modifications of endothelial cells with lesions of the capillary wall and free degraded red blood cells; disorganization of the ground substance in small areas or sometimes extended to all matrix of the space; collagen fibres reduced in number and size, and in two cases the presence of collagen fibrils with severe lesions, realeasing an electrondense material, fibrinoid-like; matrix infiltration, in some cases with lipids. In only one interadipocyte space a synaptic button was noted in contact with capillary. In malnutrition lesions of cellular elements of the white adipose tissue the following were observed: adipocytes, fibroblasts, fibrocytes, endothelial cells, mast cells--which in their turn are responsible for modifications of macromolecular structures of the extracellular matrix--glycosaminoglycans, proteoglycans, components of which biosyntheses are cell-dependent.