Abstract

In this study, we investigated the impact of bariatric surgery on the adipose proteome to better understand the metabolic and cellular mechanisms underlying weight loss following the procedure. A total of 46 patients with severe obesity were included, with samples collected both before and after bariatric surgery. Additionally, 15 healthy, non-obese individuals who did not undergo surgery served as controls and were studied once. We utilized quantitative liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis to conduct a large-scale proteomic study on abdominal subcutaneous biopsies obtained from the study participants. Our proteomic profiling revealed that among the 2254 compared proteins, 46 were upregulated, and 34 were downregulated 6 months post-surgery compared to baseline (FDR < 0.01). We observed a downregulation of proteins associated with mitochondrial integrity, amino acid catabolism, and lipid metabolism in the patients with severe obesity compared to the controls. Bariatric surgery was associated with an upregulation in pathways related to mitochondrial function, protein synthesis, folding and trafficking, actin cytoskeleton regulation, and DNA binding and repair. These findings emphasize the significant changes in metabolic and cellular pathways following bariatric surgery, highlighting the potential mechanisms underlying the observed health improvements post-bariatric surgery. The data provided alongside this paper will serve as a valuable resource for the development of targeted therapeutic strategies for obesity and related metabolic complications.