2016 Volume 65 Issue 6 Pages 257-266
A growth hormone deficiency is associated with increases in body fat. However, it currently remains unclear whether subcutaneous- or/and intra-abdominal adipose tissues are markedly elevated in dwarf obesity. Experiments were conducted on the spontaneous dwarf rats (SDRs) and normal Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats using an X-ray computed tomography scanner to determine body composition. A longitudinal study of aging was also conducted to track age-related changes in body composition using same animals.We succeeded to estimate the subcutaneous and intra-abdominal adipose tissue mass in rat by X-ray CT. SDRs demonstrated the dwarf obesity, but SDs did not. SDRs developed dwarf obesity due to the accumulation of subcutaneous-abdominal adipose tissue, but not intra-abdominal adipose tissue. Age-dependent increases in the abdominal adipose tissue were observed in both SDRs and SDs. However, age-dependent increases in intra-abdominal adipose tissue were greater than in subcutaneous-abdominal adipose tissue.
