Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Peking University School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Center for Obesity and Metabolic Disease Research, Beijing, 100191, China.
Histochem Cell Biol. 2019 Dec;152(6):439-451. doi: 10.1007/s00418-019-01812-5. Epub 2019 Sep 23.
Superficial fascia has abundant preadipocytes capable of spontaneous and induced differentiation and is thought to be a novel origin of adipocytes. This study aimed to quantitatively evaluate the spatial distribution and correlation of adipocytes and mast cells in rat superficial fascia. Panoramic images were obtained from whole-mounted fascia stained by toluidine blue. Adipocytes increased gradually in superficial fascia of growing rats. Abundant mast cells, with the degranulation and exocytosis of abundant secretory granules, appeared in fascia where partially differentiating adipocytes and mature adipocytes occurred. Quantitative histological analysis by variance-mean ratio and Morisita index of dispersion indicated that both mast cells and adipocytes in fascia were distributed individually in cluster, but not random or uniform. Spearman's correlation coefficient revealed that the spatial cluster distributions of mast cells and adipocytes positively correlated with each other and correlated with increased number and size of adipocytes and adipogenic areas in fascia. Morphometry analysis indicated the strong correlation between fascial adipocytes and mast cells during the periods of rat growth. The correlation coefficient increased significantly at 8 weeks compared to 4 weeks, consistent with the increasing trend of the number and size of fascia adipocytes in growing rats. This finding provided the first quantitative histological analysis for the spatial distribution and correlation of fascia adipocytes and mast cells, which could be the histocytological basis for further exploring spatial and functional interactions between fascial mast cells and adipocytes. Also, the present data were informative for the research on physiologies and pathologies of fascia and fascia-related connective tissues.
浅筋膜富含能够自发和诱导分化的前脂肪细胞，被认为是脂肪细胞的一个新来源。本研究旨在定量评估大鼠浅筋膜中脂肪细胞和肥大细胞的空间分布和相关性。经甲苯胺蓝染色的筋膜全层铺片获得全景图像。在生长大鼠的浅筋膜中，脂肪细胞逐渐增多。在部分分化的脂肪细胞和成熟脂肪细胞出现的部位，出现了大量肥大细胞，其分泌颗粒大量脱颗粒和外排。方差均数比和离差指数 Morisita 分析的定量组织学分析表明，筋膜中的肥大细胞和脂肪细胞呈簇状分布，但不是随机或均匀分布。Spearman 相关系数显示，肥大细胞和脂肪细胞的空间簇状分布彼此呈正相关，与筋膜中脂肪细胞数量和大小的增加以及成脂区相关。形态计量学分析表明，在大鼠生长过程中，筋膜脂肪细胞与肥大细胞之间存在很强的相关性。与 4 周相比，8 周时的相关系数显著增加，与生长大鼠筋膜脂肪细胞数量和大小的增加趋势一致。这一发现为筋膜脂肪细胞和肥大细胞的空间分布和相关性提供了首次定量组织学分析，可为进一步探索筋膜肥大细胞与脂肪细胞之间的空间和功能相互作用提供组织细胞学基础。此外，本研究数据为筋膜和筋膜相关结缔组织的生理学和病理学研究提供了信息。
