Human myometrial artery function and endothelial cell calcium signalling are reduced by obesity: Can this contribute to poor labour outcomes?

Body Mass and Income: Gender and Occupational Differences

This paper aims to examine the influence of body shape on income, which varies with gender and occupational structure in China. The data were obtained from the CGSS (Chinese General Social Survey) 2010-2017 Survey. The overall finding in this paper is that women and men face different body shape-income effects. For females, the obesity penalty is significant and is reinforced with increasing occupational rank. For men, the thinness penalty (or weight premium) is enhanced as the occupational class decreases. Body shape-income gaps are mainly caused by the occupational structure. Twenty-nine percent of the income gap between overweight and average weight women can be explained by the obesity penalty, 37% of the income gap between overweight and average weight men can be interpreted by the weight premium, and 11% of the gap between underweight and normal weight men can be explained by the thinness penalty. The findings also suggest that the effect of body shape on income consists of two pathways: body shape affects health capital and socialization, and therefore income. Healthy lifestyles and scientific employment concepts should be promoted, and measures to close the gender gap should be implemented.

Disrupted endothelial cell heterogeneity and network organization impair vascular function in prediabetic obesity

BACKGROUND

Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, and stroke. Impaired endothelial function occurs in the earliest stages of obesity and underlies vascular alterations that give rise to cardiovascular disease. However, the mechanisms that link weight gain to endothelial dysfunction are ill-defined. Increasing evidence suggests that endothelial cells are not a population of uniform cells but are highly heterogeneous and are organized as a communicating multicellular network that controls vascular function.

PURPOSE

To investigate the hypothesis that disrupted endothelial heterogeneity and network-level organization contribute to impaired vascular reactivity in obesity.

METHODS AND RESULTS

To study obesity-related vascular function without complications associated with diabetes, a state of prediabetic obesity was induced in rats. Small artery diameter recordings confirmed nitric-oxide mediated vasodilator responses were dependent on increases in endothelial calcium levels and were impaired in obese animals. Single-photon imaging revealed a linear relationship between blood vessel relaxation and population-wide calcium responses. Obesity did not alter the slope of this relationship, but impaired calcium responses in the endothelial cell network. The network comprised structural and functional components. The structural architecture, a hexagonal lattice network of connected cells, was unchanged in obesity. The functional network contained sub-populations of clustered specialized agonist-sensing cells from which signals were communicated through the network. In obesity there were fewer but larger clusters of sensory cells and communication path lengths between clusters increased. Communication between neighboring cells was unaltered in obesity. Altered network organization resulted in impaired, population-level calcium signaling and deficient endothelial control of vascular tone.

CONCLUSIONS

The distribution of cells in the endothelial network is critical in determining overall vascular response. Altered cell heterogeneity and arrangement in obesity decreases endothelial function and provides a novel framework for understanding compromised endothelial function in cardiovascular disease.