New study reveals sex- and region-specific metabolic signatures of different adiposity indices
An international study from the Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV), in collaboration with the University of Ioannina (Greece), shows that not all body fat is the same. Its location in the body and its biological effects are different between women and men. The study, led by Christopher Papandreou from the Clinical and Epidemiological Neuroscience group (NeuroÈpia) was published in the journal eBioMedicine. The research analysed metabolomic data from more than 150,000 participants in the UK Biobank and confirmed the results with an independent Greek cohort of 1,127 individuals.
The study revealed striking contrasts in how fat stored in different regions of the body influences metabolism. Abdominal fat was linked to more harmful, atherogenic metabolic changes, while fat stored in the hips and thighs (gluteofemoral fat) showed more favorable metabolic profiles. These metabolic signatures were also more strongly correlated with over 25 clinical biomarkers, including cholesterol, liver enzymes, inflammatory markers, and hormone levels, than conventional measures such as body mass index or waist circumference.
The findings underscore the importance of both fat distribution and sex-specific biology in determining metabolic health. By linking detailed metabolic profiles to regional fat depots, the study provides new insights into how adiposity drives the risk of cardiometabolic disease and cancer, and highlights the potential of metabolomic biomarkers to improve early detection and prevention strategies.
Reference
Papagiannopoulos, C. K., Markozannes, G., Chalitsios, C. V., Christakoudi, S., Gunter, M. J., Dossus, L., … Papandreou C* & Tsilidis, K. K.* (2025). Sex-stratified metabolic signatures of adiposity indices and their associations with clinical biomarkers in the UK Biobank. EBioMedicine, 119.
*Shared last authorship
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