The Impact of Body Fat Distribution on COVID-19 Vaccine Response: an MRI-Based Study

Objective: Subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue have distinct physiological roles. The correlation between the amount of visceral tissue and the immunity response following vaccination remains unclear, despite its known effects on immunity. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody levels after vaccination and body fat tissue values measured using a specialized software on specific magnetic resonance imaging sequences. Methods: After ethics committee approval, prospectively 60 volunteers (27 males, 33 females; median age of 33 years) were vaccinated with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and tested for IgG levels. Abdominal MRI was performed to measure subcutaneous and visceral fat tissue areas using a semiautomatic application. Results: The median value of IgG antibody titers after vaccination was 1039 (113 – 6613). Median subcutaneous adipose tissue(cm2), visceral adipose tissue (cm2), SAT index (SATI) (cm2/m2), VAT index (VATI) (cm2/m2), total fat area (TFA) (cm2), and SAT/VAT (cm2) were 178.5 (38.1-552.5), 51.5 (7.1-273.2), 61.4 (14.3-213.1), 19.1 (2.7-90.6), 251.3 (45.3-683.2), and 3.3 (0.4-12.3) respectively. There was no significant correlation between the adipose tissue measurements and antibody titers (p>.05). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that automated software can efficiently and accurately evaluate body fat distribution using MRI. However, the results showed no significant association between fat distribution and the immunization response to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.