Lower Total Adipocyte Number but No Evidence for Small Adipocyte Depletion in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes
- Magdalena Pasarica, MD, PHD,
- Hui Xie, MS,
- David Hymel, MS,
- George Bray, MD,
- Frank Greenway, MD,
- Eric Ravussin, PHD and
- Steven R. Smith, MD
- Corresponding author: Steven R. Smith, smithsr{at}pbrc.edu
Abstract
OBJECTIVE We hypothesized that, compared with obese subjects, patients with type 2 diabetes have a lower total adipocyte number with fewer small adipocytes.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue was obtained from lean and obese subjects with or without type 2 diabetes matched for BMI. Adipocyte size was measured by osmium fixation and sizing/counting in a Coulter counter. Adipocyte size and number subdistributions (small, medium, large, and very large) were determined.
RESULTS Compared with obese subjects, type 2 diabetic patients had larger mean adipocyte size and 67% bigger very large adipocytes; the total adipocyte number was lower, but the fraction of small adipocytes was increased by 27%.
CONCLUSIONS Total adipocyte cellularity is lower in type 2 diabetic subjects than in obese subjects. We found no evidence for depletion of small adipocytes in patients with type 2 diabetes. This suggests the presence of a defect in early maturation of adipocytes in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Footnotes
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Clinical trial reg. nos. NCT00377975 and NCT00493701, clinicaltrials.gov.
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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- Received December 16, 2008.
- Accepted February 10, 2009.
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Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ for details.
- © 2009 by the American Diabetes Association.
