Abstract
Adipose tissue (AT) storage capacity is central in the maintenance of whole-body homeostasis, especially in obesity states. However, sustained nutrients overflow may dysregulate this function resulting in adipocytes hypertrophy, AT hypoxia, inflammation and oxidative stress. Systemic inflammation may also contribute to the disruption of AT redox equilibrium. AT and systemic oxidative stress have been involved in the development of obesity-associated insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) through several mechanisms. Interestingly, fat accumulation, body fat distribution and the degree of how adiposity translates into cardio-metabolic diseases differ between ethnicities. Populations of African ancestry have a higher prevalence of obesity and higher T2D risk than populations of European ancestry, mainly driven by higher rates among African women. Considering the reported ethnic-specific differences in AT distribution and function and higher levels of systemic oxidative stress markers, oxidative stress is a potential contributor to the higher susceptibility for metabolic diseases in African women. This review summarizes existing evidence supporting this hypothesis while acknowledging a lack of data on AT oxidative stress in relation to IR in Africans, and the potential influence of other ethnicity-related modulators (e.g., genetic-environment interplay, socioeconomic factors) for consideration in future studies with different ethnicities.
Highlights
One of the primary functions of adipose tissue (AT) is the storage of triglycerides during positive calorie balance and the release of free fatty acids (FFAs) in periods of energy demand
We evaluated data showing that AT oxidative stress is distinctly regulated in different fat depots and is influenced by ethnicity
visceral adipose tissue (VAT) accumulation might exert its detrimental effects on metabolic health partly through elevated oxidative stress profile in this depot
Summary
One of the primary functions of adipose tissue (AT) is the storage of triglycerides during positive calorie balance and the release of free fatty acids (FFAs) in periods of energy demand. It has been shown that populations of African ancestry present with hyperinsulinemia, are more insulin resistant and at greater risk for T2D than populations of European ancestry [24,26,27] This is concomitant with differences in AT morphology and function between these two ethnic groups suggesting that ethnic-specific AT function may be partly involved in the development of obesity-associated metabolic dysfunction. The research term “oxidative stress and adipose tissue” in the PubMed NIH database gave over 2600 outputs while the research term “oxidative stress, adipose tissue and ethnicity” only gave 11 results (searched on 1 February 2021) This underlines the lack of evidence regarding the ethnic-specific difference in AT oxidative stress markers. This review will focus on oxidative stress as one of the mechanisms potentially involved in ethnic-specific differences in obesity-associated T2D risk.
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