Characterisation and comparison of adipose tissue macrophages from human subcutaneous, visceral and perivascular adipose tissue

Background and aims Macrophages play important roles in adipose tissue inflammation and its consequences. Unfortunately, a detailed description of the macrophage phenotypes in different human adipose tissues is not available. Subjects and methods Subcutaneous, visceral and perivascular adipose tissues were obtained from 52 living kidney donors during live donor nephrectomy. Stromal vascular fractions were isolated, and the macrophage phenotypes were analyzed by flow cytometry using surface markers (CD14, CD16, CD36, and CD163). Results In addition to CD16 positivity, pro-inflammatory macrophages also display high scavenger receptor CD36 expression. The great majority of CD16 negative macrophages express the anti-inflammatory CD163 marker. The presence of pro-inflammatory macrophages was almost twice as high in visceral (p