Hypertension and Type Ii Diabetes Are Not Associated with Visceral Inflammation or Vascular Remodeling/Fibrosis in Obese Women

Hypertension (HT) and Type 2 diabetes (T2D) are more common in overweight and obese subjects, but mechanistic links have not been fully established. Some evidence indicates that low level inflammation, especially in visceral fat depots, provides one such link in part by promoting vascular remodeling/fibrosis. Here we sought to determine if inflammation and splanchnic vascular remodeling/fibrosis were more prevalent in obese women with hypertension and/or T2D than obese only.METHODSWe blindly evaluated H&E stained mesenteric vessels and perivascular adipose tissue obtained from 29 female patients who underwent Roux‐en‐Y bariatric surgery. Based on this evaluation, the patients were separated into two groups, according to the observed relatively prevalence and severity of histological alterations (vascular remodeling/fibrosis, angiogenesis, and inflammation). Tissues from 11 patients showed relatively mild histological changes (Group A), while tissues from the other 18 patients displayed more severe histological alterations (Group B). Based on their medical histories, the number of patients with HT, T2D, HT+T2D or neither condition (obese only: OO) were determined for both groups.RESULTSHT+T2D was slightly (but not significantly) higher in group B than group A (3/11, 27.7% vs 8/18, 44.4%). OO (3/11, 27.3% vs 5/18, 27.7%), HT (3/11, 27.3% vs 3/18, 16.6%), and T2D (3/11, 27.3% vs 2/18, 11.2%) were all similar in groups A and B. There were no differences in age (45 ± 3y vs 49 ± 2y), BMI (43.3 ± 3% vs 44.1 ± 2%) or occurrence of hyperlipidemia (6/11, 54.5% vs 9/18, 50%) between the two groups. To confirm our observations in H&E stained tissues, we randomly selected three patients from each category (OO, HT, T2D and HT+T2D), and evaluated vascular remodeling/fibrosis in Masson's trichrome stained tissues (for collagen) and macrophage infiltration into perivascular adipose tissue (CD 68 staining). The results showed no correlation between vascular remodeling/fibrosis, or adipose tissue inflammation, and HT or T2D.CONCLUSIONSOur studies do not support the hypothesis that inflammation and vascular remodeling/fibrosis in the splanchnic region cause hypertension or T2D in obese women.Support or Funding InformationSupported by NIH 2P01HL070687 (For Drs Fink, Galligan, Watts and Xu)