The present study tested the hypothesis that abdominal subcutaneous fat is a protective fat depot in terms of cardiometabolic risk factor prevalence. Individuals of the Framingham Heart Study (n=1,455 women and 1,546 men) were first stratified into tertiles of intra-abdominal (visceral) adipose tissue and then according to tertiles of abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue. In the lowest intra-abdominal adipose tissue tertile, risk factor prevalence was low. However, systolic blood pressure in women and proportions of elevated triglycerides, impaired fasting glucose, hypertension and the metabolic syndrome increased across subcutaneous fat tertiles. In the top intra-abdominal adipose tissue tertile, lower prevalence of elevated triglycerides were observed in men with high levels of subcutaneous adipose tissue. Moreover, there was no increase in the prevalence of low HDL cholesterol in both sexes and no increased rates of impaired fasting glucose in men. These results suggest that in the presence of elevated intra-abdominal fat, subcutaneous adipose tissue may confer cardioprotective effects through certain cardiometabolic risk factors.
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