abstract
- The relationship between obesityObesity and coronary artery disease (CAD)Coronary artery disease may be mediated by epicardial adiposeEpicardial adipose tissuetissueAdipose tissue(EAT)Epicardial adipose tissue. EATEpicardial adipose tissue volume correlates with abdominal visceral adiposeAdipose tissuetissueAbdominal visceral adipose tissue and as a consequence EATEpicardial adipose tissue is increased in patients with obesityObesity. The presence of EATEpicardial adipose tissue adjacent to the coronary atherosclerotic lesions suggests a paracrine participation of this tissue in the progression and calcificationCalcificationof the atheroma. EATEpicardial adipose tissue expresses cardioprotective adipocytokinesAdipocytokine and anti-calcifying factors, such as adiponectinAdiponectinand osteoprotegerinOsteoprotegerin among others, whose expression declines in the setting of a hypertrophy of the EATEpicardial adipose tissueand CADCoronary artery disease. In contrast, pro-inflammatory and pro-calcifying molecules such as TNF-alpha, and osteopontinOsteopontin, as well as some microRNAsMicro RNAs, are expressed in a higher amount in patients with CADCoronary artery disease than in control subjects. Therefore, the quantification of the EATEpicardial adipose tissue emerges as a potential and useful determination for evaluating the CADCoronary artery disease risk. However, the understanding of the complexity of the secretory pattern of EATEpicardial adipose tissue is still under investigation; the knowledge derived from future studies in this field will provide new potential pharmacological targets to prevent and treat the CADCoronary artery disease. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.