Obesity is associated with macrophage accumulation in adipose tissue
J. Clin. Invest. Stuart P. Weisberg, et al. 112:1796 doi:10.1172/JCI19246 [
Go to this article.]

Figure 4Macrophages in the liver and muscle of lean and obese mice. Immunohistochemical detection of cells expressing the macrophage-specific antigen F4/80 (arrows) in extensor digitalis longus muscles from C57BL/6J (
a and
c)
Lepob/ob female and (
b and
d) lean female mice. Macrophages were rarely detected in areas surrounding the myofibrils (
c and
d). However, muscle from both lean and obese animals was infiltrated and surrounded by adipose tissue that contained significant numbers of F4/80-positive macrophages (
a and
b). The percentage of F4/80-positive macrophages within this adipose tissue was markedly increased in obese compared with lean mice (
e,
P < 0.005). The percentage of F4/80-positive Kupffer cells within liver was not significantly altered in obesity. Calibration mark = 40 0m; white bars, lean mice; gray bars,
Lepob/ob mice.