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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter March 29, 2018

The “adipose tissue expandability” hypothesis: a potential mechanism for insulin resistance in obese youth

  • Sonia Caprio EMAIL logo , Bridget Pierpont and Romy Kursawe

Abstract

Obesity has become a major global health challenge of the 21st century, as it is associated with the onset of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular complications, even at a very early age in life. The root causes of pediatric obesity remain incompletely understood. The obesity epidemic together with the relationship of obesity to the growing population burden of chronic disease presents unprecedented research opportunities and challenges. Decades of obesity-related research funded by governments around the world have yielded many important discoveries about both etiological pathways and preventive or therapeutic interventions. Yet, there is a sense that the problem is outpacing these research efforts. Obesity poses a significant risk for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) , diabetes and certain cancers thereby shortening life expectancy. Nevertheless, many obese individuals do not develop any of these comorbidities. One hypothesis explaining this dilemma is that total body fat is not the culprit of adverse health in obesity rather the relative proportion of lipids in various fat depots is what determines the metabolic risk. In this review, we describe the role of altered fat partitioning in youth onset obesity and its relation to fatty liver and T2D during adolescence.

Award Identifier / Grant number: AG045712

Award Identifier / Grant number: DK-085638

Award Identifier / Grant number: DK-090556

Award Identifier / Grant number: DK-49230

Award Identifier / Grant number: K24-HD-01464

Award Identifier / Grant number: R01-EB006494

Award Identifier / Grant number: R01-HD-28016

Award Identifier / Grant number: R01-HD-40787

Award Identifier / Grant number: UL1-RR-0249139

Award Identifier / Grant number: 7-08-DCS-01

Funding source: Diabetes Research Center

Award Identifier / Grant number: P30-DK-045735

Funding statement: This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grants R01-HD-40787, R01-HD-28016 and K24-HD-01464 to S.C.; Clinical and Translational Science Award grant UL1-RR-0249139 from the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the NIH; grant R01-EB006494 (Bioimage Suite); and Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award from the American Diabetes Association 7-08-DCS-01 (S.C.), as well as grants DK-49230 and DK-085638 (G.I.S.), grants DK-090556 and AG045712 (V.D.D.), the Diabetes Research Center grant P30-DK-045735.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all of the volunteers and Karin Allen, for her skillful help in the study.

Author Statement

  1. Conflict of interest: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

  2. Informed consent: Informed consent is not applicable.

  3. Ethical approval: The conducted research is not related to either human or animals use.

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Received: 2018-1-9
Accepted: 2018-2-22
Published Online: 2018-3-29

©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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