Unique Genetic and Histological Signatures of Mouse Pericardial Adipose Tissue

• Main Authors: A. Al-Dibouni, R. Gaspar, S. Ige, S. Boateng, F. R. Cagampang, J. Gibbins, R. D. Cox, D. Sellayah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-06-01
• Series: Nutrients
• Subjects: adipose tissue; obesity; metabolism
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/6/1855

Obesity is a major risk factor for a plethora of metabolic disturbances including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Accumulating evidence is showing that there is an adipose tissue depot-dependent relationship with obesity-induced metabolic dysfunction. While some adipose depots, such as subcutaneous fat, are generally metabolically innocuous, others such as visceral fat, are directly deleterious. A lesser known visceral adipose depot is the pericardial adipose tissue depot. We therefore set out to examine its transcriptional and morphological signature under chow and high-fat fed conditions, in comparison with other adipose depots, using a mouse model. Our results revealed that under chow conditions pericardial adipose tissue has uncoupling-protein 1 gene expression levels which are significantly higher than classical subcutaneous and visceral adipose depots. We also observed that under high-fat diet conditions, the pericardial adipose depot exhibits greatly upregulated transcript levels of inflammatory cytokines. Our results collectively indicate, for the first time, that the pericardial adipose tissue possesses a unique transcriptional and histological signature which has features of both a beige (brown fat-like) but also pro-inflammatory depot, such as visceral fat. This unique profile may be involved in metabolic dysfunction associated with obesity.