In vivo molecular imaging analysis of pathophysiology in metabolic syndrome

代谢综合征是心血管疾病的主要危险因素，也是导致死亡的主要原因之一。在肥胖动物的脂肪组织中，人类代谢综合征的实验疾病模型、脂肪细胞的分化和肥大以及慢性炎症发生，并且在发病机制中起关键作用。我们开发了一种“体内分子成像技术”，可以区分各种类型的细胞，如脂肪细胞，血管内皮细胞和血细胞，包括免疫细胞，并观察活动物脂肪组织中细胞与细胞的相互作用。我们发现大量的CD8+效应T细胞浸润到肥胖脂肪组织中，并促进巨噬细胞的募集，最终导致肥胖组织中的慢性炎症。我们还清楚地表明，“体内分子成像技术”是分析各种类型人类疾病模型中复杂细胞相互作用的有力工具。

Metabolic syndrome is a major risk factor of cardiovascular disease and one of the leading causes of death. In adipose tissue of an obese animal, an experimental disease model of human metabolic syndrome, differentiation and hypertrophy of adipose cells as well as chronic inflammation takes place and plays critical role in the pathogenesis. We developed an "in vivo molecular imaging technique", where we could distinguish various types of cells, such as adipose cells, vascular endothelial cells and blood cells including immunocytes, and observe cell-to-cell interactions in adipose tissues of a living animal. We found that large number of CD8+ effector T cells infiltrated into obese adipose and contributed to the macrophage recruitment, which culminated in chronic inflammation in obese tissue. We also clearly showed that "in vivo molecular imaging technique" is a powerful tool to analyze complex cellular interactions in various types of human disease models.