Inflammatory characteristics of adipose tissue collected by surgical excision vs needle aspiration

Abstract

Subcutaneous adipose tissue can be obtained for research during an elective, clinically indicated operation by standard surgical excision approaches and by needle aspiration in pure research settings. Whether measurements of inflammatory markers and cells made in tissue collected these two different ways are comparable is debatable. We sought to determine whether these two techniques yield systematically different results for measurements of inflammation, cellular senescence, and adipose tissue composition. Twelve subjects undergoing surgery participated. At the time of surgery abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue from adjacent sites was removed by excision and needle aspiration. Stromovascular cell composition (flow cytometry), the number of senescent cells (senescence-associated-β-galactosidase staining), and IL-6, IL-1, TNF-α, MCP1 mRNA (RT-PCR) were measured in each sample. We found no statistically significant differences between the two sample collection approaches for any of the parameters measured. We conclude that these two methods of obtaining adipose tissue do not systematically differ in the results of cytokine mRNA content, cellular senescence, or stromovascular cell composition.

Increased asthma and adipose tissue inflammatory gene expression with obesity and Inuit migration to a western country

“…A further limitation could be the size of the biopsy, as it have been shown that the subcutaneous needle biopsy might be too little, compared with a surgical biopsy [43]. However in a currently published paper by Santosa et al [44] the examination of cytokines seems feasible I fine needle biopsies like used in the present study, and as support for the present data we were able to measure cytokines in most samples.…”

Omentectomy in addition to gastric bypass surgery and influence on insulin sensitivity: A randomized double blind controlled trial

“…These methods do not result in any differences when examining adipose tissue characteristics according to a recent study. 98 Some investigations have found two distinct pools of fat cell sizes in the same subject whereof one pool consists of very small fat cells. 99,100 Surprisingly, a pool of very small fat cells have been found in subjects with adipose inflammation and insulin resistance 99,101 These very small fat cells, with a diameter of 20-50 µm might be missed with the method we used to isolate fat cells.…”

Activation of the Adipose Tissue NLRP3 Inflammasome Pathway in Cancer Cachexia

“…ScAT and VAT (corresponding to PtAT, in the present study scenario) are very distinct, so differences in gene and protein expression profiles may contribute to the observed disturbances. Different fat depots differ in cell size, physiological function, and contribution to disease states ( 49 ). In VAT, adipocytes have greater lipolytic activity and generally secrete more pro-inflammatory cytokines than ScAT, contributing to systemic inflammation associated with metabolic disorders.…”