Adipose tissue distribution and risk of metabolic disease: does thiazolidinedione-induced adipose tissue redistribution provide a clue to the answer?

The relative effect of visceral and subcutaneous obesity on the risk of chronic metabolic disease has been a matter of long-term dispute. While ample data support either of the fat depots being causative or associative, valid argument for one depot often automatically belittles the other. Paradigms such as the visceral/portal hypothesis and the acquired lipodystrophy/ectopic fat storage and endocrine hypothesis have been proposed. Nevertheless,...