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Review
. 2021 Feb 19:11:613606.
doi: 10.3389/fendo.2020.613606. eCollection 2020.

The Role of Adipocyte Precursors in Development and Obesity

Tammy Ying  1 , Rebecca A Simmons  2   3   4
Affiliations
Review

The Role of Adipocyte Precursors in Development and Obesity

Tammy Ying et al. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Maintenance of adipocyte precursors is critical for regulating metabolism and preventing obesity related disease. These precursors have been immortalized and studied in cellular models as well as-more recently-in animal models. However, little is known about adipocyte precursors from animals of different ages. Most research has focused on adipocyte precursors during obesity. This review goes over the most recent reports of adipocyte precursors during development and in adulthood. Some of these new analyses are due to new techniques such as single cell-RNA sequencing and temporally controlled lineage tracing. With these tools, we have been able to further our understanding of adipocyte precursor lineages and their different regulatory mechanisms. As we learn more about adipocyte precursor plasticity and regulation, we can hope to use this knowledge for future clinical applications.

Keywords: adipocyte lineage; adipocyte precursor; adipogenesis; adult; development.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Developmental and adult adipocyte precursor specification timeline. This figure illustrates the timing of adipogenesis for adult versus developmental adipocyte precursors. Created with BioRender.com.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Adipocyte precursor and progenitor niches. Intracellular adhesion molecular 1 (ICAM1+) cells are committed pre-adipocytes, which have been localized to the perivascular space (blood vessels). Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4+) cells are pluripotent progenitor cells that have been localized to the reticular interstitium. DPP4+ICAM1+ cells are transitioning from DPP4+ to ICAM1+ and located at the leading edge of the reticular interstitium. Created with BioRender.com.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Regulation of multi-level adipogenesis. This figure depicts some of the regulatory mechanisms that have been found to control adipogenesis. These mechanisms can be different in developmental animals compared to adult animals. Created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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