Today I link to the web page, An Endocrine Society Thematic Issue: Obesity 2023. This is an outstanding open-source resource for all physicians and patients.
All that follows is from the above resource.
September 2023
Read our special collection of journal articles, published in 2022-2023, focused on obesity! Curation of the collection was guided by Altmetric Attention Scores, Featured Article designations, and the number of article downloads.
In Journal of the Endocrine Society, Enright and coauthors discuss the advent of new weight-loss pharmacotherapies and their potential to move beyond the 5 percent goal. Schweitzer and colleagues describe weight loss and blood lipid as well as HbA1c improvements resulting from a short-term workplace-based diet and exercise program (Pritkin). Endo et al. report on studies with male mice indicating that the metabolic benefits of intermittent fasting result in part from promotion of histone acetylation in lipid oxidation genes of muscle and adipose tissue.
In JCEM Case Reports, Patel and coauthors report on a young man who achieved a 32.5 percent weight loss with a combination of drug therapies, including a glucagon-like peptide -1 receptor agonist. Farabi et al. describe the case of a young woman whose body weight increased by over 30 percent with no concomitant worsening of her metabolic health. Sciacovelli and associates report on the successful use of semaglutide to treat obesity induced by resection of craniopharyngioma.
In Endocrine Reviews, Akalestou and others survey mechanisms of weight loss after obesity surgery, which include changed food selection. Carpentier and associates discuss the cellular metabolism of brown adipose tissue, its regulation, and its likely roles in human thermoregulation and cardiometabolic disorders—as well as the potential for its therapeutic manipulation. Brown and Scherer critically review the evidence linking adiposity with 13 types of cancer, discussing several possible mechanisms for the connection.
In Endocrinology, Kumagai and coauthors describe a multi-omics atlas that integrates transcriptomic and metabolomic characterizations of mouse brown adipose tissue over the life span to obtain a time-resolved picture of its development. Li and colleagues identify mechanisms that may account for the weight-loss-inducing effects of berberine. Smith and others provide evidence that young women are protected from the vascular insulin resistance that even short-term exposure to an obesogenic lifestyle confers on young men.
In JCEM, Kalavalapalli and associates report that the insulin resistance of adipose tissue predicts the severity of liver fibrosis in patients with type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Jun et al. describe how low skeletal muscle mass and abdominal obesity additively increase the risk of incident type 2 diabetes, independently from glycometabolic parameters. Mongraw-Chaffin and coauthors find a strong graded association of body mass index and diabetes with self-reported COVID-19 that suggests obesity and diabetes might play a role in risk for symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, beyond their co-occurrence with socioeconomic factors.
JOURNAL OF THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY
An Updated Approach to Antiobesity Pharmacotherapy: Moving Beyond the 5% Weight Loss Goal
Connor Enright, Elizabeth Thomas, David R SaxonDespite professional society guidelines recommending that obesity be treated as a chronic disease by emphasizing the use of lifestyle modification in conjunction with pharmacotherapy, antiobesity medications are uncommonly prescribed in most clinical practices.
Short-term Intensive Lifestyle Therapy in a Worksite Setting Improves Cardiometabolic Health in People With Obesity
George G Schweitzer, David C Beckner, Gordon I Smith, Samuel KleinThe Pritikin Program, which provides intensive lifestyle therapy, has been shown to improve cardiometabolic outcomes when provided as a residential program.
Intermittent Fasting Sustainably Improves Glucose Tolerance in Normal Weight Male Mice Through Histone Hyperacetylation
Sho Endo, Asuka Uto, Kazutoshi Miyashita, Masaaki Sato, Hiroyuki Inoue, Kentaro Fujii, Aika Hagiwara, Masaki Ryuzaki, Takuma Oshida, Kenichiro Kinouchi, Hiroshi ItohTo explore the mechanism by which intermittent fasting (IF) exerts prolonged effects after discontinuation, we examined mice that had been subjected to 4 cycles of fasting for 72?hours and ad libitum feeding for 96?hours per week (72hIF), followed by 4 weeks of ad libitum feeding, focusing on expression of genes for lipid metabolism in the skeletal muscle and histone acetylation in the promoter region.
JCEM CASE REPORTS
Weight Loss From Combination Anti-Obesity Medication Regimens Can Approach that Achieved From Bariatric Surgery
Priya N Patel, Claudia K Fox, Megan O Bensignor, Eric M BombergObesity is a multifactorial chronic disease for which treatment remains challenging. While the cornerstone treatment is lifestyle modification, the addition of anti-obesity medications leads to greater weight reduction. In cases where monotherapy with a single anti-obesity medication results in either weight stabilization or only modest weight reduction, combination regimens can be highly effective, especially those including glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists.
Metabolically Healthy Obesity is not a Myth
Sarah S Farabi, Gordon I Smith, Jun Yoshino, Samuel KleinPeople with obesity who do not have the metabolic syndrome or components of the metabolic syndrome have been characterized as having metabolically healthy obesity (MHO). However, the existence of MHO has been questioned because people with MHO are at greater risk of developing diabetes and fatal cardiovascular disease than people who are lean and healthy.
Semaglutide for Treating Obesity Induced by Craniopharyngioma Resection: A Successful Case Study
Cristina Sciacovelli, Ginevra Moschione, Silvia Garelli, Uberto PagottoSurgical treatment of craniopharyngioma often leads to a rapid and dramatic weight gain, leading to hypothalamic obesity. Treatment focused on the diet, physical activity, and different types of drugs have very often provided unsatisfactory results.
ENDOCRINE REVIEWS
Mechanisms of Weight Loss After Obesity Surgery
Elina Akalestou, Alexander D Miras, Guy A Rutter, Carel W le RouxObesity surgery remains the most effective treatment for obesity and its complications. Weight loss was initially attributed to decreased energy absorption from the gut but has since been linked to reduced appetitive behavior and potentially increased energy expenditure.
Brown Adipose Tissue – A Translational Perspective
André C Carpentier, Denis P Blondin, François Haman, Denis RichardBrown adipose tissue (BAT) displays the unique capacity to generate heat through uncoupled oxidative phosphorylation that makes it a very attractive therapeutic target for cardiometabolic diseases. Here, we review BAT cellular metabolism, its regulation by the central nervous and endocrine systems and circulating metabolites, the plausible roles of this tissue in human thermoregulation, energy balance, and cardiometabolic disorders, and the current knowledge on its pharmacological stimulation in humans.
Update on Adipose Tissue and Cancer
Kristy A Brown, Philipp E SchererAdipose tissue is the largest endocrine organ and an accepted contributor to overall energy homeostasis. There is strong evidence linking increased adiposity to the development of 13 types of cancer. With increased adiposity comes metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance, and increased systemic insulin and glucose support the growth of many cancers, including those of the colon and endometrium.
ENDOCRINOLOGY
A Multiomics Atlas of Brown Adipose Tissue Development Over Time
Yutaro Kumagai, Yutaka Saito, Yasuyuki S KidaBrown adipose tissue (BAT) regulates homeostatic energy balances in response to physiological changes such as nutrition intake, calorie restriction, exercise, and environmental temperature by consuming energy to generate heat, and thus serves as an important organ for obesity and metabolic diseases. We performed an integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic characterization of developing mouse BAT from embryo to adult to obtain a time-resolved picture of BAT development.
Berberine Ameliorates Obesity by Inducing GDF15 Secretion by Brown Adipocytes
Chang Li, Qingyang Leng, Lihua Li, Fan Hu, Yuejie Xu, Sa Gong, Ying Yang, Hongli Zhang, Xiaohua LiBerberine (BBR), which is a compound derived from the Chinese medicinal plant Coptis chinensis, promotes weight loss, but the molecular mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we show that BBR increases the serum level of growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15), which is a stress response cytokine that can reduce food intake and lower body weight in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice.
Young Women Are Protected Against Vascular Insulin Resistance Induced by Adoption of an Obesogenic Lifestyle
James A Smith, Rogerio N Soares, Neil J McMillan, Thomas J Jurrissen, Luis A Martinez-Lemus, Jaume Padilla, Camila Manrique-AcevedoVascular insulin resistance is a feature of obesity and type 2 diabetes that contributes to the genesis of vascular disease and glycemic dysregulation. Data from preclinical models indicate that vascular insulin resistance is an early event in the disease course, preceding the development of insulin resistance in metabolically active tissues. Whether this is translatable to humans requires further investigation.
THE JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGY & METABOLISM
Adipose Tissue Insulin Resistance Predicts the Severity of Liver Fibrosis in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes and NAFLD
Srilaxmi Kalavalapalli, Eddison Godinez Leiva, Romina Lomonaco, Xiaofei Chi, Sulav Shrestha, Rachel Dillard, Jeffery Budd, Jessica Portillo Romero, Christina Li, Fernando Bril, George Samraj, John Pennington, Petra Townsend, Frank Orlando, Shwetha Shetty, Lydia Mansour, Lorena Rodrigues Silva-Sombra, Pierre Bedossa, John Malaty, Diana Barb, Matthew J Gurka, Kenneth CusiAlthough type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a risk factor for liver fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the specific contribution of insulin resistance (IR) relative to other factors is unknown.
Low Skeletal Muscle Mass Accompanied by Abdominal Obesity Additively Increases the Risk of Incident Type 2 Diabetes
Ji Eun Jun, Seung-Eun Lee, You-Bin Lee, Gyuri Kim, Sang-Man Jin, Jae Hwan Jee, Jae Hyeon KimLow skeletal muscle mass often accompanies abdominal obesity in the aging process. We aimed to investigate the effect of reduced skeletal muscle mass and its interaction with abdominal obesity on incident type 2 diabetes.
Association of Obesity and Diabetes With SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Symptoms in the COVID-19 Community Research Partnership
Morgana Mongraw-Chaffin, Ashley Hogan Tjaden, Austin Lyles Seals, Kristen Miller, Naheed Ahmed, Mark A Espeland, Michael Gibbs, Dorey Thomas, Diane Uschner, William S Weintraub, Sharon L Edelstein, Covid-19 Community Research PartnershipObesity and diabetes are established risk factors for severe SARS-CoV-2 outcomes, but less is known about their impact on susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and general symptom severity. We hypothesized that those with obesity or diabetes would be more likely to self-report a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, and, among those with a positive test, have greater symptom severity and duration.
