A 3D microscope sheds light on the body’s immune response to obesity

Researchers who focus on fat know that some adipose tissue are more prone to inflammation-related comorbidities than others, but the reasons for understanding them are not well understood. Thanks to a new study method, scientists are gaining a clearer view of the microorganisms found within obesity-related adipose tissue.

This increase may clarify why some adipose tissue is more prone to inflammation – leading to diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disorders – and help with leading future drug therapies to treat obesity.

In a new study, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Andrew Smith and Mark A. Anastasio, professor of molecular and integrated physiology, Erik Nelson and professor of nutritional sciences Kelly Swanson, detail the use of the new method in mice. The results are published in the journal Advances in science.

Inflammation in adipose tissue manifests itself as a rounded complex of skeletal material called crown structures. Previous studies have shown that body fat containing these structures is associated with worse outcomes of obesity and related metabolic disorders, the study reports.

Previously, researchers were limited to using 2D chips of thin material and a traditional microscope, limiting what researchers could learn about them.

To get a better view, the team developed a special type of microscope that uses a 3D light sheet instead of a beam, a fat cleansing method that provides visually transparent material, and deep learning algorithms that help with processing. most pictures. data extracted.

The researchers found that the crown appearances that give these structures their name are, in fact, more like 3D shells or dense areas around an empty heart, Smith said.

Using our new technique, we can determine the volume of the crown structures, the specific number of cells associated with them, as well as their size, geometry and distribution. “

Andrew Smith, Professor, B.ioengineering, University of Illinois Urbana Initiative

This ability led the team to discover that obesity tends to be related to the frequency of rare cruciate ligament structures, which are not present in the lean state.

“These very large coronation structures are grouped together and located in the middle of the smoke,” Smith said. “And there’s no way we could have analyzed this before we used our new approach.”

Smith said the research could lead to new drug therapies and new ways to assess patients’ metabolic health.

“Right now, we know that some patients are obese but metabolically healthy, and others are underweight and metabolically unhealthy,” Smith said. “We believe if the ability to look deep into the microenvironments with fat compression could solve some of the reasons for this.”