Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Adipose tissue

Fat, yet fit

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 12, pages 375–376 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Susceptibility to impaired metabolic health in relation to obesity is not necessarily mediated by overall fatness, but is largely dependent on the distribution of body fat and the ability to sufficiently expand adipose tissue depots. A recent study published in Diabetes provides genetic evidence to support the concept of a 'metabolically healthy obese' phenotype.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Regulation of the 'metabolically healthy obese' phenotype.

References

  1. Danforth, E. Jr. Failure of adipocyte differentiation causes type II diabetes mellitus? Nat. Genet. 26, 13 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Virtue, S. & Vidal-Puig, A. Adipose tissue expandability, lipotoxicity and the metabolic syndrome — an allostatic perspective. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1801, 338–349 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Yaghootkar, H. et al. Genetic evidence for a normal-weight 'metabolically obese' phenotype linking insulin resistance, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and type 2 diabetes. Diabetes 63, 4369–4377 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Locke, A. E. et al. Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology. Nature 518, 197–206 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Yaghootkar, H. et al. Genetic evidence for a link between favorable adiposity and lower risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Diabetes http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/db15-1671 (2016).

  6. Karpe, F. & Pinnick, K. E. Biology of upper-body and lower-body adipose tissue — link to whole-body phenotypes. Nat. Rev. Endocrinol. 11, 90–100 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Elks, C. E. et al. Adult obesity susceptibility variants are associated with greater childhood weight gain and a faster tempo of growth: the 1946 British Birth Cohort Study. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 95, 1150–1156 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Warrington, N. M. et al. Association of a body mass index genetic risk score with growth throughout childhood and adolescence. PLoS ONE 8, e79547 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Spalding, K. L. et al. Dynamics of fat cell turnover in humans. Nature 453, 783–787 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Taylor, R. & Holman, R. R. Normal weight individuals who develop type 2 diabetes: the personal fat threshold. Clin. Sci. (Lond.) 128, 405–410 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Oxford, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, OX3 7LE, UK

    Senthil K. Vasan

  2. Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Oxford, Churchill Hospital, Oxford OX3 7LE, UK; and at the Oxford National Institute for Health Research, Biomedical Research Centre, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK.,

    Fredrik Karpe

  3. and at the Oxford National Institute for Health Research, Biomedical Research Centre, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK.,

    Fredrik Karpe

Authors
  1. Senthil K. Vasan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fredrik Karpe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fredrik Karpe.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Vasan, S., Karpe, F. Fat, yet fit. Nat Rev Endocrinol 12, 375–376 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2016.77

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2016.77

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing