Longitudinal studies on adipose tissue and its distribution in human subjects

Abstract

On 27 men and 6 women, total body density and 10 skinfolds were measured 12 yr apart, with the mean age increasing from 31 to 43 yr. The increase in skinfold thickness was found to be related to the increase in total body adiposity, calculated from hydrostatic weighing. The external adipose tissue was calculated from the mean skinfold thickness and body surface area. Variations in total adiposity among the population studied as well as changes in total adiposity with age showed a characteristic distribution with approximately two-thirds on the surface and one-third in the interior. The essential body mass or total adipose mass determined by hydrostatic weighing was compared with the values obtained by water-immersion volumetry, total body potassium counting, and skinfold measurements. Teh volumetric and skinfold determinations gave better estimates of these parameters than total body potassium counting.

Estimation of body fat from skinfold thicknesses in middle‐aged and older men and women: A multiple component approach

“…One longitudinal study of men and women with an initial mean age of 31 years which measured ten skinfold sites 12 years apart noted the greatest increases in mean skinfold thickness at the chest, side, waist, back, and abdomen locations (Chien et al, 1975), closely resembling those skinfold sites positively related to age in the present study. Thus, it remains possible that some of the biological error in the relationship of statistically selected sets of skinfolds (Table 4) to body fatness maybe due to a redistribution of subcutaneous fatness with increasing age.…”

Age-related variability in body composition methods for assessment of percent fat and fat-free mass in men aged 20–74 years

“…The decrease was less for the other two methods: only 11-13%. The smallest decline in FFM attributed to ageing was determined by anthropometry and may be explained by the centralization of subcutaneous fat or by an increase in internal fat that would not be measured by the skinfold technique [1][2][3][4]. As age increases, subcutaneous fat becomes more centralized (male android patterning) and there is an increase in internal fat.…”

“…A gain in body weight has been commonly observed after the age of 20 and until the age of 50, which has been attributed primarily to gains in adipose tissue. During ageing, the increase in adipose tissue is distributed in a typical pattern, with a large part of the increase occurring in the central abdominal sites, while subcutaneous fat tends to be lost from the limbs (male android patterning) [1,2]. There is also an age-related internalization of body fat [3,4].…”