Excision of Visceral Adipose Tissue from Live Mice (VATectomy)

Abstract

The visceral adipose tissue (VAT) has been shown to play an important role in various biological functions. It is a storage depot for nutrients and it is an important endocrine organ producing hormones that control systemic metabolism (McGown et al., 2014). Importantly, following diet-induced obesity, VAT accumulates a large number of activated immune cells, which produce cytokines that drive chronic systemic inflammation and promote insulin resistance (Johnson et al., 2012; Wensveen et al., 2015). VAT therefore plays a key role in metabolic, endocrinological and immunological research. To show the importance of this organ in various research models, one may surgically remove the organ in a procedure called VATectomy. This protocol describes the technical procedures required for an efficient VATectomy of the perigonadal fat pads in mice.