Adipose tissue: tissue to discover

作者：Casteilla L^*; Laharrague P; Cousin B; Planat Benard V; Lorsignol A; Dromard C

来源：Osteoporosis International, 2013, 24: S446-+.

While adipose tissue is largely and for a long-time investigated for its role in energy balance and metabolic disorders but recent discoveries reveal unexpected views on new key players, i.e. immune/hematopoietic cells, or new role as a reservoir of immature cells, without bringing any clear explanation about the distinctive roles of adipose tissues according to their locations. By extension, this is particularly true for medullary adipocytes, which are largely neglected but could strongly control hematopoiesis and osteogenesis. Three types of adipose tissues can be classically distinguished. The white adipose tissue (WAT), which represents the main energy store of the organism and is related to the obesity and metabolic syndrome, the brown adipose tissue (BAT) involved in thermogenesis, and adipose tissue present in bone marrow. Whatever the type of tissues, they all displayed great tissue plasticity: BAT can be converted into WAT during the development, WAT can be reverted to BAT after cold exposure or pharmacological treatments at least in rodents and dogs, bone marrow adipose tissue develops during aging with a concomitant decrease of haematopoiesis and disappears when haematopoiesis is activated after a haemorrhage for instance. During these last years, the status of WAT and our knowledge have largely evolved. Becoming an endocrine tissue after the discovery of leptin and adipokines, it appears that it hosts a large heterogeneous population of immune cells that play a key role in energy balance and also a large reservoir of multipotent cells previously named preadipocytes. The following text will be focused on the new advances of WAT.

• 出版日期2013-5