NCT02838277

Insight Into Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue Disorders

Insight Into Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue Disorders As Part of The TREAT Program (Treatment, Research, Education, Adipose Tissue) at the University of Arizona

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 500 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Arizona · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 19 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The INSIGHT study aims to phenotype individuals with subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) disorders specifically lipedema and Dercum's disease with an aim to find a cure for the SAT in these disorders that is resistant to diet and exercise.

Detailed description

Lipedema is a syndrome of painful fatty enlargement of the buttocks, hips and thighs primarily in women which cannot be lost by diet, exercise or bariatric surgery. Arms are affected in 80% of women with lipedema to varying degrees. The etiology of lipedema is not known and there are no evidence-based treatments that work for a majority of individuals except for excision of the subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) by liposuction which has risks. Millions of women are affected with lipedema yet they are grossly under-diagnosed, have mobility issues and can develop lymphedema. The goal of this project is to better understand the etiology of lipedema SAT, find out how it is different from non-lipedema SAT, to improve our ability to identify the abnormal SAT and determine the response of the tissue to therapeutics by imaging and biomarkers. People with diffuse Dercum's disease (DD) appear to have lipedema plus a tissue inflammation that causes illness and pain. People with SAT disorders that have similarities to lipedema will also be included in this protocol. More research is needed to determine how these fatty disorders are similar and different from each other and from obesity so they can be distinguished clinically and by laboratory testing and imaging. Since these painful fatty disorders are associated with SAT growth, research focused on these disorders may provide unique insight into mechanisms of obesity.

Conditions

• Lipedema
• Dercum's Disease
• Familial Multiple Lipomatosis
• Madelung's Disease

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-06-01
• Primary completion: 2018-06-01
• Completion: 2018-12-01
• First posted: 2016-07-20
• Last updated: 2017-09-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States