Growth Hormone’s Effect on Adipose Tissue: Quality versus Quantity

Figures

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  Figure 1. Distribution of white AT (WAT) and brown AT (BAT) in humans and mice. (A) Prominent human WAT depots are shown. Subcutaneous (subQ) depots most often studied in humans include two distinct upper body depots on the ventral side, superficial and deep, as well as gluteal and femoral fat pads. Several depots are defined as intraabdominal, including perinephric around the kidneys, retroperitoneal in the retroperitoneal space behind the kidneys and mesenteric and omental WAT lining organs of the digestive tract. (B) Several human BAT depots are depicted. BAT in adult humans is present in several different locations, including the neck, heart, spinal cord and kidneys. However, the majority is contained within the supraclavicular depot. (C) Four commonly-studied WAT depots in a male mouse are shown. Inguinal fat is a subQ depot that lies just beneath the skin and is similar to the gluteofemoral subQ in humans. Intraabdominal depots include mesenteric fat associated with the intestine, retroperitoneal behind the kidneys (K) and epididymal WAT next to the testes (paraovarian surrounds the ovaries of female mice; collectively, epididymal and paraovarian are also called perigonadal).…

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  Figure 2. Mice with altered GH action. From left to right: a wild-type mouse, a bGH mouse with increased GH action, a GHA mouse with decreased GH action and a GHR-/- mouse with GH insensitivity. Adapted with permission from [36,37]. Copyright 2011 Elsevier.

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  Figure 3. Comparison of body fat percentage in mice with altered GH action. Male and female bGH mice have greater body fat percent than WT mice earlier in life, a trend that starts to reverse at four and six months of age, respectively (left). Fat percentage is greater in male and female GHA mice compared to controls throughout life. Male GHR-/- mice have markedly increased body fat percent compared to controls and appear to rapidly accumulate fat during the first four months of life. Increased percentage of fat is also observed in female GHR-/- mice compared to controls, albeit not as drastic. Adapted with permission from [38]. Copyright 2017 John Wiley & Son.

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  Figure 4. Depot-specific differences due to extremes in GH. (A) Hematoxylin and eosin staining of subcutaneous (SubQ) and epididymal (Epi) AT. Tissue samples were obtained from six-month-old GHR-/-, GHA, bGH and control mice. (B) Quantification of adipocyte size from these mice. (C) Adiposity in GHR-/- mice. Regional body fat distribution of male WT mice (left) and male GHR-/- mice (right) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The mouse is positioned with the anterior part at the bottom of the image. Subcutaneous AT is highlighted yellow and intra-abdominal blue. Adapted with permission from [36,37]. Copyright 2011 Elsevier.

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  Figure 5. Comparison collagen staining in AT. SubQ AT from five-month-old bGH, wild-type (WT) controls and GHR-/- mice stained with Picrosirius red, a commonly-used histological technique to visualize collagen in paraffin-embedded tissue sections. Adapted with permission from [38]. Copyright 2017 John Wiley & Son.