Negative legacy of obesity

PLoS One. 2017 Oct 26;12(10):e0186303. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186303. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Obesity promotes excessive inflammation, which is associated with senescence-like changes in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and the development of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and cardiovascular diseases. We have reported that a unique population of CD44hi CD62Llo CD4+ T cells that constitutively express PD-1 and CD153 exhibit cellular senescence and cause VAT inflammation by producing large amounts of osteopontin. Weight loss improves glycemic control and reduces cardiovascular disease risk factors, but its long-term effects on cardiovascular events and longevity in obese individuals with T2DM are somewhat disappointing and not well understood. High-fat diet (HFD)-fed obese mice were subjected to weight reduction through a switch to a control diet. They lost body weight and visceral fat mass, reaching the same levels as lean mice fed a control diet. However, the VAT of weight reduction mice exhibited denser infiltration of macrophages, which formed more crown-like structures compared to the VAT of obese mice kept on the HFD. Mechanistically, CD153+ PD-1+ CD4+ T cells are long-lived and not easily eliminated, even after weight reduction. Their continued presence maintains a self-sustaining chronic inflammatory loop via production of large amounts of osteopontin. Thus, we concluded that T-cell senescence is essentially a negative legacy effect of obesity.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Diet, High-Fat
  • Humans
  • Immunophenotyping
  • Inflammation / physiopathology
  • Intra-Abdominal Fat / physiopathology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Obesity / immunology
  • Obesity / physiopathology*
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency PRESTO to Motoaki Sano, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Grant Number 15H04825) to Motoaki Sano and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Grant Number 15H01160) to Motoaki Sano. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.