AJP - Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 256, Issue 4 E467-E474, Copyright © 1989 by American Physiological Society
Influence of age, fat cell weight, and obesity on O2 consumption of human adipose tissue
P. Hallgren, L. Sjostrom, H. Hedlund, L. Lundell and L. Olbe
Department of Medicine, Sahlgren's Hospital, Goteborg, Sweden.
The oxygen consumption of human adipose tissue (AT) was determined in 53
adults, lean and obese, and in nine lean boys. The oxygen consumption was
positively related to fat cell weight and negatively to age and degree of
obesity. Men and women did not differ with respect to oxygen consumption of
AT. The positive relationship between oxygen consumption per cell and fat
cell size was also demonstrated in size-separated cells from the same
donors. Expressed per cell the oxygen consumption was higher in fat cells
from obese than in cells from lean subjects, but expressed per gram of
tissue the opposite result was found. The oxygen consumption of the total
AT organ was higher in obese than in lean subjects. The energy expenditure
of AT constituted approximately 4% of the estimated 24-h energy expenditure
in both groups. It is concluded that obese subjects do not maintain their
obesity because of a reduced energy expenditure of the total AT (or of the
total body). After a partial weight reduction in five subjects, the energy
metabolism tended to change in direction toward the conditions seen in lean
subjects. However, it is still an open question whether the observed energy
metabolic aberrations of obese human AT are only secondary to the obese
state or partly primary and thus of etiological importance.
