Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, U.S.A.
Center for Cancer Research, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, U.S.A.
Clin Sci (Lond). 2019 Oct 30;133(20):2107-2119. doi: 10.1042/CS20190128.
Adipose tissues collectively as an endocrine organ and energy storage are crucial for systemic metabolic homeostasis. The major cell type in the adipose tissue, the adipocytes or fat cells, are remarkably plastic and can increase or decrease their size and number to adapt to changes in systemic or local metabolism. Changes in adipocyte size occur through hypertrophy or atrophy, and changes in cell numbers mainly involve de novo generation of new cells or death of existing cells. Recently, dedifferentiation, whereby a mature adipocyte is reverted to an undifferentiated progenitor-like status, has been reported as a mechanism underlying adipocyte plasticity. Dedifferentiation of mature adipocytes has been observed under both physiological and pathological conditions. This review covers several aspects of adipocyte dedifferentiation, its relevance to adipose tissue function, molecular pathways that drive dedifferentiation, and the potential of therapeutic targeting adipocyte dedifferentiation in human health and metabolic diseases.
脂肪组织作为一个内分泌器官和能量储存库，对于全身代谢稳态至关重要。脂肪组织中的主要细胞类型，即脂肪细胞或脂肪细胞，具有显著的可塑性，可以通过肥大或萎缩来增加或减少其大小和数量，以适应全身或局部代谢的变化。脂肪细胞大小的变化通过肥大或萎缩发生，细胞数量的变化主要涉及新细胞的从头生成或现有细胞的死亡。最近，去分化已被报道为脂肪细胞可塑性的一种机制，即成熟脂肪细胞被逆转回未分化的祖细胞样状态。在生理和病理条件下均观察到成熟脂肪细胞的去分化。这篇综述涵盖了脂肪细胞去分化的几个方面，包括其与脂肪组织功能的相关性、驱动去分化的分子途径，以及在人类健康和代谢疾病中靶向脂肪细胞去分化的治疗潜力。
