Active Cushing’s disease is characterized by increased adipose tissue macrophage presence

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism — Lee IT, et al. | February 07, 2019

Using immunohistochemistry, researchers determined whether adipose tissue (AT) inflammation in humans is associated with chronic endogenous glucocorticoid (GC) exposure due to Cushing’s disease (CD).

Abdominal subcutaneous AT samples were evaluated for macrophage infiltration and mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in 10 patients with active CD and 10 age, gender and BMI- matched healthy subjects.

The presence of AT macrophages, a hallmark of AT inflammation, increases chronic exposure to GCs due to CD. AT inflammation can, therefore, be the source of systemic inflammation in these patients, which in turn can contribute to obesity, insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease. In patients with CD, PCR showed no differences in mRNA expression of any analyzed markers.

Read the full article on Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism

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