Obesity-induced adipose tissue dysfunction can cause low-grade inflammation and downstream obesity comorbidities. This study used human primary preadipocytes from body mass index (BMI)-discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs to investigate whether increased BMI alters chromatin co-accessibility, leading to inflammation. Results show altered co-accessibility in higher BMI twins for a large genomic region (~88.5 Mb), linking these regions to systemic inflammation through interactions with BMI and C-reactive protein (CRP). Open chromatin co-accessibility in preadipocytes is disrupted in higher BMI individuals, suggesting a mechanism linking obesity to inflammation via gene-environment interactions.

Kristina M. Garske, Asha Kar, Caroline Comenho, Brunilda Balliu, David Z. Pan, Yash V. Bhagat, Gregory Rosenberg, Amogha Koka, Sankha Subhra Das, Zong Miao, Janet S. Sinsheimer, Jaakko Kaprio, Kirsi H. Pietiläinen, Päivi Pajukanta