Identifying sex differences in predictors of epicardial fat cell morphology

Predictors of overall epicardial adipose tissue deposition have been found to vary between males and females. Whether similar sex differences exist in epicardial fat cell morphology is currently unknown. This study aimed to determine whether epicardial fat cell size is associated with different clinical measurements in males and females. Fat cell sizes were measured from epicardial, paracardial, and appendix adipose tissues of post-mortem cases (N= 118 total, 37 females). Epicardial, extra-pericardial, and visceral fat volumes were measured by computed tomography from a subset of cases (N= 70, 22 females). Correlation analyses and stepwise linear regression were performed to identify predictors of fat cell size in males and females. Median fat cell sizes in all depots did not differ between males and females. Body mass index (BMI) and age were independently predictive of epicardial, paracardial, and appendix fat cell sizes in males, but not in females. Epicardial and appendix fat cell sizes were associated with epicardial and visceral fat volumes, respectively, in males only. In females, paracardial fat cell size was associated with extra-pericardial fat volume, while appendix fat cell size was associated with BMI only. No predictors were associated with epicardial fat cell size in females at the univariable or multivariable levels. To conclude, no clinical measurements were useful surrogates of epicardial fat cell size in females, while BMI, age, and epicardial fat volume were independent, albeit weak, predictors in males only.