A new study highlights why individuals with obesity are at greater risk of suffering severe symptoms from the coronavirus, necessitating hospitalization and even death from the virus.
A group of researchers identified how the coronavirus interacts with fat cells, also known as adipocytes, and examined the adipose tissue of some patients who died from COVID-19. They found that virus particles were present in the fat surrounding their organs.
The researchers collected adipose tissue from bariatric surgeries and tested how it reacted to the coronavirus. Scientists discovered that adipocytes could become infected with the virus and even develop a low level of inflammation. The immune cells present in the adipose tissue, macrophages, also became susceptible to the coronavirus, resulting in a more intense immune response.
This discovery led the team to speculate that the coronavirus might convert adipose tissue into a sort of reservoir where it hides from the immune system. Philip Scherer, a scientist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who was not part of the study, told The Times that the team’s results showed that the virus can "directly infect fat cells."
The study has not yet been peer-reviewed and is pending scrutiny from other medical experts and critics, but it offers a possible explanation for why individuals with obesity face a higher risk of severe COVID-19, according to Medical Daily.
