Conditions: Obesity Metabolic Syndrome
Keywords: Obesity Fat distribution Adipogenesis Adipocyte Preadipocyte Ectopic fat
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 63
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
The body shape of obese women varies between having the majority of fat either above the waist ("apple" shape) or below the waist ("pear" shape). The study will investigate what restricts: apple"-shaped women from being "pear"-shaped at the cellular level. Since "pear" shaped women tend to have better health, this study will open the door to future research in regulating body shape and thus improving health.

Detailed description:
Adipose tissue expandability and the distribution of stored fat in the body are stronger predictors of health risk. A better understanding of the factors that determine regional fat mass growth may lead to developing new strategies for prevention or treatment of metabolic complications of obesity. The objective of this proposal is to study the responsiveness of different fat depots to adipogenic stimulation in upper-body and lower-body obese women.

Arms:
arm 1: Administration of placebo to upper- and lower-body obese women arm 2: Administration of pioglitazone to upper- and lower-body obese women

Interventions: intervention 1: Pioglitazone intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 30mg per day for four months intervention 2: None

Protocol document: