Subcutaneous abdominal fat is not associated with a linear increase in the prevalence of all cardiovascular metabolic risk factors

According to the ectopic fat hypothesis, subcutaneous fat may be protective with respect to certain cardiovascular risk factors. In order to further explore this hypothesis, 3001 participants from the Framingham Heart Study were stratified by visceral adipose tissue (VAT) into sex-specific tertiles. Within these tertiles, age-adjusted abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) tertiles were examined in relation to cardiovascular risk factors. In the lowest VAT tertile, the prevalence of risk factors was low but with increasing SAT tertile, there was an increase of systolic blood pressure in women and of rates of high triglycerides, impaired fasting glucose, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome in men. Contrarily, in the top VAT tertile, lower triglycerides were observed in men and women with increasing SAT, although for women the changes did not reach statistical significance. Thus, while adiposity increases the absolute risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease, subcutaneous abdominal fat is not associated with a linear increase in the prevalence of all cardiovascular metabolic risk factors among obese subjects, particularly high triglycerides.

Abstract

Keywords:
Blood pressure – BMI – HDL cholesterol – Hypertension – IFG – Metabolic syndrome – Subcutaneous adipose tissue – Triglycerides – Visceral adipose tissue