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Adipose tissue biology

Published on January 31, 2016   43 min

Other Talks in the Series: Obesity: Science, Medicine and Society

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0:00
Hello, my name is Costas Christodoulides. I'm a clinical researcher from the University of Oxford and I'm going to talk to you about adipose tissue biology.
0:11
So obesity is defined as excessive accumulation of adipose tissue that may impair health. It is commonly classified by body mass index, which is the weight of an individual in kilograms divided by their height square in meters. According to the World Health Organization individuals with a BMI of 25 or above are classified as overweight, 30 or above, obese, and less than 18.5, underweight. The criteria for the definition of overweight and obesity are stricter in Asian populations.
0:48
So the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled over the past 30 years as illustrated in the slide which shows data from the United States. According to the World Health Organization in 2014, 39 percent of the world's adult population, that's more than 1.9 billion individuals, were overweight and 13 percent i.e. more than 600 million subjects were obese.
1:14
Obesity has many adverse health consequences. In particular, it is associated with the development of insulin resistance which is linked to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, which were the leading global causes of death in 2012. Obesity is also associated with osteoarthritis which is a degenerative disease of joints as well as certain forms of cancer including breast, colon and endometrial cancer.

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