Fusaru Ana Marina, Pisoschi Cătălina Gabriela, Bold Adriana, Taisescu C, Stănescu R, Hîncu Mihaela, Crăiţoiu Stefania, Baniţă Ileana Monica
University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, Craiova, Romania
Rom J Morphol Embryol. 2012;53(4):903-9.
VEGF is one the pro-inflammatory adipokines synthesized by the "adipose secretoma" of obese subjects as a response to hypoxic conditions; but the main function of VEGF is angiogenesis, being recognized as the most important factor increasing blood capillaries in the adipose tissue by stimulating endothelial cell growth. In this paper, we propose a comparative study of the vascular response to VEGF synthesis in the subcutaneous and central-peritoneal adipose depots in lean, obese and obese diabetic patients. We used CD31 to label the endothelial cells in order to evaluate the response of the vascular network to VEGF synthesis. Our results showed an increase of VEGF protein synthesis in obese and obese-diabetic patients compared to lean subjects where the protein was absent. The positivity for VEGF in obese diabetic samples was observed in numerous structures from the adipose depots, both in the stromal vascular fraction--blood vessels and stromal cells--as well as in the cytoplasm of adipocytes. Positivity in the vascular wall was observed more frequently in areas of perivascular and intralobular fibrosis. Obese and diabetic patients showed similar incidence of CD31 immunoreactivity with lean subjects in both subcutaneous and peritoneal depots. In conclusion, human adipose depots show a different incidence of VEGF positive cells in relation with their disposal and the metabolic status. VEGF synthesis in visceral adipose tissue is inefficient being not followed by angiogenesis to counterbalance tissue hypoxia. We suggest that may be a pathogenic link between the degrees of intralobular fibrosis in adipose depots and VEGF expression.
