Key result
Metabolically healthy obesity is characterized by greater insulin sensitivity, lower visceral fat accumulation, and reduced chronic inflammation compared to metabolically unhealthy obesity.
Why the study?
The physiological factors underlying the protective and favourable metabolic profile in metabolically healthy obesity remain unclear.
Understanding the differences between metabolically healthy and unhealthy obesity may help identify mechanisms leading to vascular and metabolic complications and guide personalized therapies.
MHO phenotype may inform risk stratification in obesity; leaves open mechanisms and long-term outcomes for prospective study.
Individuals suffering from severe obesity but not presenting the typical metabolic alterations, are included in a subclass of obesity defined Metabolically Healthy Obesity (MHO). The physiological factors underlying what seems a protective and favourable metabolic profile remain unclear. MHO individuals are more insulin-sensitive, have relatively lower visceral/ectopic fat accumulation and reduced levels of chronic low-grade inflammation, compared to obese subjects with co-morbidities. The study of MHO subjects represents a great opportunity for the recognition of the mechanisms that lead to the vascular and metabolic complications in obesity. Finding the differences among the metabolic profile of visceral adipose tissue between metabolically healthy and unhealthy obesity may lead to future personalized and stratified therapies.This review article summarizes the pathomechanisms and metabolic changes in MHO and metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO), reviews clinical studies on the subject, and discusses preventive and therapeutic options.
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Candi et al. (2021) conducted a review in Obesity. Metabolically healthy obesity vs. Metabolically unhealthy obesity was evaluated. Metabolically healthy obesity is characterized by greater insulin sensitivity, lower visceral fat accumulation, and reduced chronic inflammation compared to metabolically unhealthy obesity.
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