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Title: Stromal vascular cells and adipogenesis: Cells within adipose depots regulate adipogenesis

Author
item Hausman, Gary
item DODSON, M - Washington State University

Submitted to: Journal of Genomics
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/6/2012
Publication Date: 5/1/2012
Citation: Hausman, G.J., Dodson, M.V. 2012. Stromal vascular cells and adipogenesis: Cells within adipose depots regulate adipogenesis. Journal of Genomics. 1:56-66.

Interpretive Summary: Fat cells usually refer to the lipid-filled cells, found in high concentrations in various body locations. Fat cells have been associated with consumption of excess calorie resulting in excess fat deposition in meat animals and humans leading to a variety of metabolic maladies like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, other cells reside in any fat cell depot. Cells like the stromal-vascular cells and stem cells play an important role in fat cell formation, fat location physiology and regulation of numerous systemic pathways. While used as a system to study the step-by-step progression of fat cell formation, stromal-vascular cells in fat locations, play much more of a regulatory role than once thought. Therefore understanding the regulation of stromal-vascular and stem cell development per se may lead to mechanisms to preferentially control fat deposition in meat animals.

Technical Abstract: A collection of investigations indicate the importance of adipose tissue stromal/stem cells to vasculogenesis and angiogenesis during adipogenesis. Early in development the stromal-vascular (S-V) elements control and dictate the extent of adipogenesis in a depot dependent manner. For instance, the vasculature and connective tissue collagen matrix develops before overt adipocyte differentiation. Definitive studies of human adipose tissue stem cells (ADSCs) provided an understanding of stem cell identity and function. In this regard, a novel vascular stem cell theory proposes that ADSCs are a mixed population of vascular stem cells (VSCs) with differential potential proportional to the angiogenic potential of the vasculature. The differential potential of VSCs can range considerably in a continuous fashion and can include vascular smooth cells, endothelial cells (EC) and adipocytes. These observations are consistent with fetal adipose studies that show location dependent angiogenic potential ranging from more to less in regards to a predominant presence of EC and developing arterioles before overt adipogenesis.