This transdisciplinary pilot study will collect human abdominal adipose tissue samples in order to examine how the link between obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) varies across fat depots and ethnicity. Our prior work showed greater T2D risk in African Americans (AA) compared to Hispanics, despite lower visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and suggest greater “potency” of VAT on metabolic risk in AA. We will examine the role of adipose tissue inflammation in explaining this ethnic disparity, and the new pilot data will be used to strengthen revisions of our NIH RO1 application.

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