Fat Cell Size: Measurement Methods, Pathophysiological Origins, and Relationships With Metabolic Dysregulations

Overview

Journal Endocr Rev

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Endocrinology

Date 2021 Jun 8

PMID 34100954

Citations 38

Authors

Run Zhou Ye

Gabriel Richard

Nicolas Gevry

Andre Tchernof

Andre C Carpentier

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The obesity pandemic increasingly causes morbidity and mortality from type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and many other chronic diseases. Fat cell size (FCS) predicts numerous obesity-related complications such as lipid dysmetabolism, ectopic fat accumulation, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disorders. Nevertheless, the scarcity of systematic literature reviews on this subject is compounded by the use of different methods by which FCS measurements are determined and reported. In this paper, we provide a systematic review of the current literature on the relationship between adipocyte hypertrophy and obesity-related glucose and lipid dysmetabolism, ectopic fat accumulation, and cardiovascular disorders. We also review the numerous mechanistic origins of adipocyte hypertrophy and its relationship with metabolic dysregulation, including changes in adipogenesis, cell senescence, collagen deposition, systemic inflammation, adipokine secretion, and energy balance. To quantify the effect of different FCS measurement methods, we performed statistical analyses across published data while controlling for body mass index, age, and sex.

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