Diet-induced weight loss decreases adipose tissue oxygen tension with parallel changes in adipose tissue phenotype and insulin sensitivity in overweight humans

• Published in: International Journal of Obesity Vol. 41; no. 5; pp. 722 - 728
• Main Authors: Vink, R G, Roumans, N J, Čajlaković, M, Cleutjens, J P M, Boekschoten, M V, Fazelzadeh, P, Vogel, M A A, Blaak, E E, Mariman, E C, van Baak, M A, Goossens, G H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.05.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 38/61; 631/443/319/333/1465; 692/700/2817; Abdomen; Adipocytes; Adipocytes - physiology; Adipose tissue; Analysis; Animal models; Biomarkers; Biopsy; Biosynthesis; Blood flow; Blood pressure; Body composition; Body fat; Body weight; Body weight loss; Calories; Capillary flow; Cell Hypoxia - physiology; Chair Nutrition Metabolism and Genomics; Diet; Diet, Reducing; Epidemiology; Female; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation; Health aspects; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; HNE Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics; HNE Voeding, Metabolisme en Genomics; Humans; Hypocaloric diet; Hypoxia; Inflammation; Inflammation - diet therapy; Inflammation - metabolism; Inflammation - physiopathology; Insulin; Insulin - metabolism; Insulin resistance; Insulin Resistance - physiology; Internal Medicine; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Metabolism; Middle Aged; Mitochondria; Morphology; Nutrient deficiency; Nutrition research; Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics; Obesity; Obesity - diet therapy; Obesity - metabolism; Obesity - physiopathology; original-article; Overweight; Overweight - diet therapy; Overweight - metabolism; Overweight - physiopathology; Overweight persons; Oxygen; Oxygen - metabolism; Oxygen Consumption; Oxygen tension; Phenotype; Phenotypes; Physiological aspects; Public Health; Sensitivity; Subcutaneous Fat, Abdominal - metabolism; Transcriptomes; Treatment Outcome; VLAG; Voeding, Metabolisme en Genomica; Weight control; Weight loss; Weight Loss - physiology; Xenon 133; Netherlands
• ISSN: 0307-0565; 1476-5497
• DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2017.38

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Although adipose tissue (AT) hypoxia is present in rodent models of obesity, evidence for this in humans is limited. Here, we investigated the effects of diet-induced weight loss (WL) on abdominal subcutaneous AT oxygen tension (pO 2 ), AT blood flow (ATBF), AT capillary density, AT morphology and transcriptome, systemic inflammatory markers and insulin sensitivity in humans. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Fifteen overweight and obese individuals underwent a dietary intervention (DI), consisting of a 5-week very-low-calorie diet (VLCD, 500 kcal day −1 ; WL), and a subsequent 4-week weight stable diet (WS). Body composition, AT pO 2 (optochemical monitoring), ATBF ( 133 Xe washout), and whole-body insulin sensitivity were determined, and AT biopsies were collected at baseline, end of WL (week 5) and end of WS (week 9). RESULTS: Body weight, body fat percentage and adipocyte size decreased significantly during the DI period. The DI markedly decreased AT pO 2 and improved insulin sensitivity, but did not alter ATBF. Finally, the DI increased AT gene expression of pathways related to mitochondrial biogenesis and non-mitochondrial oxygen consumption. CONCLUSIONS: VLCD-induced WL markedly decreases abdominal subcutaneous AT pO 2 , which is paralleled by a reduction in adipocyte size, increased AT gene expression of mitochondrial biogenesis markers and non-mitochondrial oxygen consumption pathways, and improved whole-body insulin sensitivity in humans.