Adipose tissue and skeletal muscle plasticity modulates metabolic health

Abstract

Obesity, accumulation of adipose tissue, develops when energy intake exceeds energy expenditure. Adipose tissue is essential for buffering the differences between energy intake and expenditure by accumulating lipids while skeletal muscle is the energy burning machine. Here we adopted the concept that (i) adipose tissue ability to regulate the storage capacity for lipids as well as (ii) dynamic regulation of muscle and adipose tissue secretory and metabolic activity is important for maintaining the metabolic health. This might be at least in part related to tissue plasticity, a phenomenon enabling dynamic modulation of the tissue phenotype in different physiological and pathophysiological situations. Recent advances in our understanding of the complex endocrine function of adipose tissue in regulating lipid metabolism, adipogenesis, angiogenesis, extracellular matrix remodelling, inflammation and oxidative stress prompted us to review the role of tissue plasticity – dynamic changes in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle metabolic and endocrine phenotype – in determining the difference between metabolic health and disease.

Key words:

• Adipokines
• adipose tissue
• hypoxia
• inflammation
• insulin resistance
• myokines
• obesity
• skeletal muscle
• tissue plasticity

Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank Danubian biobanking consortium 018822; APVV-51-040602; APVV-0122-06; COST BM 0602; VEGA 2/7110/27 and VEGA 2/7111/27 for continuous grant support.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.