The visceral adipose tissue (VAT) has been shown to play an important role in various biological functions. It is a storage depot for nutrients and it is an important endocrine organ producing hormones that control systemic metabolism (McGown et al., 2014) . Importantly, following diet-induced obesity, VAT accumulates a large number of activated immune cells, which produce cytokines that drive chronic systemic inflammation and promote insulin resistance (Johnson et al., 2012; Wensveen et al.,

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... 15) . VAT therefore plays a key role in metabolic, endocrinological and immunological research. To show the importance of this organ in various research models, one may surgically remove the organ in a procedure called VATectomy. This protocol describes the technical procedures required for an efficient VATectomy of the perigonadal fat pads in mice. Materials and Reagents 1. Male Mouse (e.g., C57BL/6, typically of 6-12 weeks old) (male mice are more severely affected by type 2 diabetes than female mice, and they are used exclusively in diet-induced diabetes studies) (Singer et al., 2015) 2. Skin disinfectant [e.g., Chlorhexidine gluconate (generic name: Pliva ® sept pjenušavi)