MSTP student Calvin Chan, is part of a team of scientists at Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine that identified for the first time that adipocytes—the cells that compose the core of fat—can unlock a dormant inflammatory potential that may contribute to obesity-associated metabolic disruption. Their findings were published online June 2, 2020, in Nature Communications.

The study shows that for many people with obesity, a complex chain-reaction of signals within their fat appears to set them up for poor outcomes from several diseases. It also reveals an unappreciated mechanism driving the relationship between obesity and dysregulated immunity.

Further investigation continues into the specific mechanisms that type I Interferons employ to modify adipocyte core metabolism. In addition, researchers continue to study the full extent of how adipocytes can “mimic” inflammatory immune cell capabilities.

Learn more.

Read the published study in Nature Communications.

(The above text includes excerpts from the originally published story from June 2, 2020 on CCHMC’s Research Horizons.)