Adipose Tissue Heterogeneity in Cardiometabolic Disease

The global obesity pandemic is worsening in many parts of the world resulting in an increased prevalence of metabolic disease like type 2 diabetes. Despite its strong association with the risk of morbidity, marked interindividual differences in the manifestation of metabolic disease exist, with a subset of obese individuals being classified as metabolically healthy. In detail, these individuals are characterized by retained metabolic health despite excess fat. One of the main factors that predicts metabolic disease risk in obese is the degree of adipose tissue dysfunction. In metabolically healthy obese individuals, adipocytes safely store lipids to maintain systemic health. In contrast, excessive adipocyte expansion drives tissue dysfunction and metabolic disease development. Considering this variability in the metabolic phenotype of obese, one of the main drawbacks in the treatment of obesity is that obese individuals are considered as a uniform population, being defined by a simple and non- informative biometric parameter (BMI > 30). Thus, in this project we aim to elucidate adipocyte-specific factors that drive metabolic disease progression to develop risk-stratified, personalized options for obesity treatment.