Effect of intramuscular adipose tissue in the skeletal muscle of thigh on glucose metabolism in male patients with obesity

Abstract

Objective·To investigate the correlation between intramuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) content and glucose metabolism in male patients with obesity.Methods·Eighty male patients with obesity were recruited from the Endocrinology Department of Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from December 2019 to December 2020. According to the results of oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), they were divided into normal glucose tolerance (NGT) group and impaired glucose regulation (IGR) group. General data and laboratory test indicators of the two groups were collected and compared. mDixon-Quant technique was used to measure the IMAT content in each skeletal muscle of the thigh in the two groups, and the proton density fat fractions (PDFF) of skeletal muscle in the two groups were compared. The multivariate Logistic regression model was used to analyze the independent influencing factors of IGR occurrence.Results·Compared with the NGT group, patients in the IGR group had a larger waist circumference (P=0.017), higher glutamic-pyruvic transaminase level, glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase level, γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT) level, triacylglycerol (TAG) level, nonestesterified fatty acid (NEFA) level and sartorius PDFF (all P<0.05). After adjusting for confounding factors such as age, body mass index, GGT, TAG and NEFA, the results of multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that PDFF of vastus lateralis, semitendinosus and sartorius were the risk factors for IGR (all P<0.05).Conclusion·Higher levels of IMAT content in vastus lateralis, semitendinosus and sartorius will increase the risk of IGR in male patients with obesity.

Keywords

• obesity
• intramuscular adipose
• glucose metabolism
• skeletal muscle
• magnetic resonance imaging (mri)