The objective of this study was to quantify the respective associations of abdominal obesity [intra-abdominal (visceral) and subcutaneous adipose tissue] and total mid-thigh adipose tissue accumulation to metabolic parameters in postmenopausal women not receiving hormone therapy (n=113). The authors documented that, after adjusting for fat mass to control for overall adiposity, the intra-abdominal adipose tissue area was significantly associated with metabolic variables, including triglyceride concentrations, highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels, fasting plasma glucose, 2-hour plasma glucose, insulin sensitivity, HDL-cholesterol, cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio, and LDL peak particle size. Moreover, total mid-thigh adipose tissue correlated negatively with apolipoprotein B, LDL particle size, fasting plasma glucose, 2-hour plasma glucose, and insulin sensitivity. Intra-abdominal adipose tissue was the best predictor of the variance in triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol concentrations, the cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio, hs-CRP, fasting plasma glucose, 2-hour plasma glucose, and insulin sensitivity. Subcutaneous adipose tissue only predicted insulin sensitivity while total mid-thigh adipose tissue was associated with a more favourable lipoprotein profile, reduced apolipoprotein B concentrations and cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio, and measured LDL particle size and HDL-cholesterol. The findings of this study highlighted the critical role of intra-abdominal fat in the deterioration of many components of the metabolic risk profile and showed that total mid-thigh adipose tissue is associated with a more favourable lipoprotein profile.
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