Stress during peripuberty leads to increase in adipose tissue: Study

‘Peripuberty' is a natural change that every person's body undergoes when childhood ends and adolescence begins. A new study has found that stress during the peripubertal period leads to an increase in adipose tissue in the individual's body. Although previous studies have shown this connection, there has been little in the way of identifying a biological link between the increase of adipose tissue seen in peripuberty and social impairment. The recent study, led by Professor Carmen Sandi at EPFL, was published in the journal, 'Science Advances'. The transitional period of peripuberty involves developmental changes in both fat tissues and in the brain in which both can be re-programmed by exposure to stress which can cause long-lasting changes in the size of fat cells (adipocytes) size and composition, as well as social behaviour. In the study, researchers uncovered two insights in the field: first, that peripubertal stress leads to an increase in adipose tissue and reduces sociability at the same time. Second, how the two changes phenomena are biologically related.