The Study
Distinct developmental signatures of human abdominal and gluteal subcutaneous adipose tissue depots.
This study looked at which genes are turned on or off in belly fat versus butt fat in a small group of people. It found some differences, but it didn’t change anything or follow people over time—so we can’t say these genes make people store fat in one place instead of another. It just shows a pattern, like noticing that people who wear sneakers often have dirty socks—but we don’t know if the sneakers caused the dirt.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Fat in the belly and butt isn't just in different spots — their cells have different genetic instructions that stay with them even when grown in a dish.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 541 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — these genetic differences may explain why butt fat is less harmful to health than belly fat, even in obese people.
- 2HOXC13 gene is only active in butt fat; HOXA10 is more active in butt fat; 9 HOX genes are less active in butt fat than belly fat — in both men and women.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism
Year
2013
Authors
K. Karastergiou, S. Fried, Hui Xie, Mi-Jeong Lee, A. Divoux, M. Rosencrantz, R. J. Chang, Steven R Smith
Related Content
Claims (6)
Men and women tend to store body fat in different areas: men more around the abdomen, and women more around the hips and thighs.
The HOXC13 gene is active only in fat tissue under the skin of the buttocks in both men and women, and not in abdominal fat tissue, which may indicate it helps define the distinct metabolic behavior of gluteal fat.
In human fat tissue under the skin, the activity of certain genes involved in fat development does not change based on a person's body weight or fat levels, suggesting that how fat tissue is organized during development is separate from how much fat is present.
Fat tissue under the skin in the abdomen and buttocks has different patterns of gene activity, with certain genes involved in body development being less active in buttock fat than in abdominal fat, regardless of body weight.
The HOXA10 gene is more active in fat cells under the skin of the buttocks than in fat cells around the abdomen, and this higher activity continues even when these cells are grown in a lab. This suggests HOXA10 may help determine why gluteal fat behaves differently from abdominal fat.
Fat cells from the abdomen and buttocks show different patterns of HOX gene activity, and these differences remain even when the cells are grown in a lab dish, suggesting the patterns are inherent to the cells themselves and were set early in development, not by their current location.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.