• Joan Tordjman, Christine Poitou, Danielle Hugol, Jean-Luc Bouillot, Arnaud Basdevant, Pierre Bedossa, Michèle Guerre-Millo, and Karine Clement.
• INSERM, U872, Eq7, 15 Rue de l'Ecole de Medicine, 75007 Paris, France.
• J. Hepatol. 2009 Aug 1;51(2):354-62.

Background/AimsRecently we showed that macrophage accumulation in omental adipose tissue is associated with liver fibro-inflammation in morbidly obese subjects. Here, we evaluated the influence of glycemic status and extended the analysis to the spectrum of obesity-linked liver damage.MethodsLiver biopsies, subcutaneous and omental adipose tissue were collected in 132 obese subjects during gastric bypass surgery. HAM56+ adipose tissue macrophages were counted in subjects classified by liver histopathology and by their degree of insulin resistance.ResultsIn the whole population, the number of omental macrophages increased with the score of steatosis, the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease activity score, the stage of fibrosis and with fibro-inflammation index. None of these relationships were significant with subcutaneous macrophage count. In insulin-sensitive participants, omental macrophages accumulation was higher in subjects with high indexes of fibro-inflammation (p=0.012 vs. low indexes). In insulin-resistant including type 2 diabetic participants, omental macrophage count was higher both in subjects with high scores of steatosis and in subjects with high indexes of fibro-inflammation (p<0.05 vs. low scores).ConclusionsMacrophage accumulation in omental adipose tissue is associated with aggravated steatosis and fibro-inflammation in insulin-resistant obese subjects independently of altered glycemic status.

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