The portal theory supported by venous drainage-selective fat transplantation.

Objective: The "portal hypothesis" proposes that the liver is directly exposed to free fatty acids and cytokines increasingly released from visceral fat tissue into the portal vein of obese subjects, thus rendering visceral fat accumulation particularly hazardous for the development of hepatic insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. In the present study, we used a fat transplantation paradigm to (artificially) increase intra-abdominal fat mass to test the hypothesis that venous drainage of fat tissue determines its impact on glucose homeostasis.

Research Design And Methods: Epididymal fat pads of C57Bl6/J donor mice were transplanted into littermates, either to the parietal peritoneum (caval/systemic venous drainage) or, by using a novel approach, to the mesenterium, which confers portal venous drainage.

Deletion of Fas in adipocytes relieves adipose tissue inflammation and hepatic manifestations of obesity in mice.

Adipose tissue inflammation is linked to the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. In addition to exerting death-promoting effects, the death receptor Fas (also known as CD95) can activate inflammatory pathways in several cell lines and tissues, although little is known about the metabolic consequence of Fas activation in adipose tissue. We therefore sought to investigate the contribution of Fas in adipocytes to obesity-associated metabolic dysregulation.

New in vitro colonic fermentation model for Salmonella infection in the child gut.

In this study, a new in vitro continuous colonic fermentation model of Salmonella infection with immobilized child fecal microbiota and Salmonella serovar Typhimurium was developed for the proximal colon. This model was then used to test the effects of two amoxicillin concentrations (90 and 180 mg day(-1)) on the microbial composition and metabolism of the gut microbiota and on Salmonella serovar Typhimurium during a 43-day fermentation. Addition of gel beads (2%, v/v) colonized with Salmonella serovar Typhimurium in the reactor resulted in a high and stable Salmonella concentration (log 7.