Inflammation and Obesity-associated Disease

Visceral obesity and adipose inflammation is considered a driving force of obesity-related systemic disease, e.g. cardiometabolic disease, liver cirrhosis and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Inflammatory resolution is actively regulated by specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs), including the endogenous eicosanoid LXA4. Impairment of SPMs may underlie development of obesity-related pathology.We hypothesize that obese patients who develop obesity-related disease do so because they suffer from impaired endogenous production of pro-resolving lipids. This will result in aggravated adipose inflammation and fibrosis, which contribute to the systemic pathologies. We thus wish to investigate adipose inflammation and the pro-resolving lipid profile of obese subjects with and without obesity associated metabolic disease. We also aim to investigate whether LXA4, LXB4 and other anti-inflammatory agents (such as AICAR) can alter the phenotype of human adipose macrophages in ex vivo tissue culture. We also investigate basic pathways in inflammatory regulation and obesity related cardiometabolic disease.