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Blood volume and adipose tissue hypoxia

International Journal of Obesity volume 33, page 606 (2009)Cite this article

I appreciate your comment on my review article.1 Your letter suggests that hypovolemia might be a cause of hypoxia response in adipose tissue as well as in other organs (like kidney), under conditions of obesity. This is an interesting point and is supported by published studies.2, 3 In 1982, Mujais et al.2 reported that obese hypertensive men and women had lower blood volume (2.5±0.05 vs 2.9±0.08 l m−2 and 2.3±0.05 vs 2.5±0.08 l m−2, respectively) if the blood volume is calculated using the body surface area. In 2005, Schreihofer et al.3 reported a result of a comparison study on plasma volume between obese Zucker rats and lean Zucker rats. They found that the total blood volume was comparable between obese and lean rats. However, when the blood volume was calculated using body weight, the obese rat had lower ratio of blood volume to body weight (3.4±0.2 vs 5.7±0.2 ml per 100 g, P<0.05). These studies suggest that, in obesity, the blood supply in each tissue or organ is reduced if the blood is distributed evenly throughout the body. However, this may not be the case as the blood supply is regulated by the metabolic rate in each tissue or organ. The tissue/organ with a high metabolic rate will have the advantage of more blood supply. In this condition, in obesity, the adipose tissue may compete with the skeletal muscle, heart and brain for limited blood supply. It is not surprising that the adipose tissue will lose the battle as it has a relatively low metabolic rate. This possibility is supported by our data that hypoxia was detected in the adipose tissue, but not in the skeletal muscle, in obese mice.4

Consistently, it has been known for more than 20 years that adipose tissue blood flow decreases in obesity if the blood volume is calculated on the basis of unit cell surface or unit weight of adipose tissue.5 The reduction was observed in both men and experimental animals in many studies.6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 The contribution of blood flow reduction to adipose tissue hypoxia is extensively discussed in the review article, and possibilities for the reduction are also analyzed.1 Angiotensin II in the renin–angiotensin system may be involved in the reduction of adipose tissue blood flow. It is likely that adipose tissue contributes to increased angiotensin activity in obesity. In summary, literature suggests that total blood volume may not be reduced in obesity, but blood perfusion is reduced in adipose tissue per unit weight (or surface). The low perfusion may contribute to adipose tissue hypoxia in obesity.

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References

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  1. Antioxidant and gene regulation laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, LSU, Baton Rouge, LA, USA,

    J Ye

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Ye, J. Blood volume and adipose tissue hypoxia. Int J Obes 33, 606 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2009.39

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