Cellularity of adipose tissue in meat animals.

Present information indicates that for meat animals adipocyte number is achieved most rapidly in the perirenal depot and least rapidly in the interfascicular of intramuscular depot. Adipocyte volume appears to be largest in the perirenal depot and smallest in the interfascicular and intermuscular depots. The best estimates available suggest that adipocyte hyperplasia is completed by 14 months of age in bovine animals and 5 months of age in porcine animals. However, because of certain technique limitations and the presence of many small adipocytes in very obese animals, these estimates must be considered very tentative. Studies in ovine and porcine animals indicate that early under-nutrition is not effective in reducing the number of subcutaneous and perirenal adipocytes later in life. However, the number of interfascicular adipocytes may be reduced. Several studies have demonstrated that the interfascicular adipocytes are very late developing and that adipocyte number is very important to the total quantity of intramuscular lipid.