A Systems‐Based Review of Adipose Tissue as an Organ: A Model of Autonomic, Immunological, and Endocrine Influences

Abstract

White Adipose Tissue (WAT) has long been regarded as a passive storage deposit of excess fat. However, recent research suggests that this tissue acts more like an organ system that interacts with other biological systems in the body, especially with the autonomous nervous system, the endocrinological and immunological system, i.e. the Neuro-endocrine-immunological (NEI) system, which is itself supported by further dynamic physiological systems. Therefore, it is possible that WAT acts as a regulatory organ that keeps the body in homeostasis. The purpose of this cross sectional study was to use physiological data from 30 patients at the Pinewood Natural Health Centre in Toronto, Canada to derive a framework that describes the role of WAT in mediating homeostasis and use statistical methods to derive a formula to describe the dynamic congruence of the body and contribute to a systems medicine (SM) understanding of the organism. Multiple variables, describing basic body parameters, body composition, metabolism, heart rate variability, immune system, autonomous neural system and endocrinological system were measured in the study and found to correlate with each other. To narrow down the number of correlations so that a formula could be derived, eight of these variables that describe body composition and metabolism, nervous system and immune system were correlated to one another using multiple regression analysis. The null hypothesis was that none of these variables would correlate; the alternative hypothesis was that there were at least two variables that would correlate with each other and represent congruence and demonstrate order. This analysis found strong correlations between parameters of the immune system and metabolism. Surprisingly, contributions of the autonomous nervous system did not contribute significantly. This suggests that despite the body's complexity, not all systems may contribute equally strongly to overall homeostasis or may contribute in varying degrees. It also points towards possibilities to study the interactions in more detail in future studies. Support or Funding Information Privately funded: Pinewood Institute for the Advancement of Medicine Poster Presentation This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.