Research

Hormonal

When adipose tissue storage capacity is exceeded, lipids are redirected to the pancreas causing lipotoxicity, beta-cell dysfunction, and type 2 diabetes.

If you have obesity but do not have diabetes, your body may still be successfully storing fat in your adipose tissue. If you have obesity and diabetes, your body may have reached its limit for storing fat safely, causing fat to leak into your pancreas and damage insulin-producing cells. Focus on improving adipose tissue function rather than just weight loss.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The adipose tissue (AT) expandability hypothesis explains this paradigm, indicating that the individual capacity to appropriately store energy surplus in the form of fat within the AT determines and prevents the toxic deposition of lipids in other organs, such as the pancreas. Thus, we posit that when the maximal storing capacity of AT is exceeded, individuals will develop T2D.
Renata Risi et al. · Journal of Endocrinology · 2024

Why this rating

The paper is a comprehensive review citing multiple human and animal studies establishing the AT expandability hypothesis.

Source

An adipocentric perspective of pancreatic lipotoxicity in diabetes pathogenesis

Renata Risi et al. · Journal of Endocrinology · 2024

DOI 10.1530/joe-23-0313

narrative_reviewCited 11×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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