GSE157798
Removal of visceral adipose tissue prevents obesity-induced multi-organ insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and NAFLD in mice
Obesity is associated with insulin resistance, an important risk factor of type 2 diabetes, atherogenic dyslipidemia, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and cardiovascular disease. It has been postulated that accumulation of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) causes obesity-induced insulin resistance. The major purpose of this study was to test hypothesis that prophylactic VAT removal prevents the development of obesity-induced multi-organ (liver, skeletal muscle, adipose tissue) insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and NAFLD. Accordingly, we surgically removed epididymal VAT from adult C57BL/6J mice and then evaluated in vivo and cellular metabolic pathways involved in glucose and lipid metabolism following feeding of chronic high-fat diet (HFD). We found that VAT removal prevented HFD-induced insulin resistance and markedly increased AKT-mediated insulin signaling in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), liver, and skeletal muscle. VAT removal improved plasma lipid profiling and prevented obesity-induced NAFLD. In addition, VAT removal significantly increased circulating level of adiponectin, a key insulin-sensitizing adipokine, whereas it decreased interleukin-6, a pro-inflammatory adipokine. Data obtained from RNA-sequencing suggest that VAT removal prevents obesity-induced oxidative stress and inflammation in liver and SAT respectively. These findings demonstrate the causative role of VAT in the development of obesity and related systemic metabolic complications, such as insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and NAFLD. Overall design: We evaluated the effects of epididymal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) removal on liver and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) gene expression profiling under a high-fat diet condition (n=5 per group).