Body fat distribution and obesity

Abstract

Obesity is a chronic disease that is linked to increased cardiometabolic disease risk, partially attributable to upper body fat accumulation and adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction. AT dysfunction is characterised by impaired adipokine expression/ secretion, chronic low-grade inflammation, decreased AT blood flow (ATBF), mitochondrial dysfunction, and altered oxygen partial pressure. This thesis investigated the biology of upper and lower body AT in humans with normal weight or obesity, focusing on potential differences in ATBF, the inflammatory phenotype and the oxidative machinery between abdominal and femoral subcutaneous AT. Furthermore, the impact of exposure to various oxygen levels on the inflammatory phenotype of abdominal and femoral adipocytes was examined. VIII 4.3.4 Abdominal and femoral subcutaneous adipose tissue blood flow _ 4.3.5 Abdominal and femoral adipocyte morphology _______________ 4.3.6 Abdominal and femoral subcutaneous adipose tissue gene expression 69 4.3.7 Gene expression in differentiated hMADS from abdominal and femoral subcutaneous adipose tissue _______________________________ 4.3.8 Adipokine secretion from differentiated abdominal and femoral hMADS 72 4.4 Discussion