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Unexpected cell population gives fat a brake

Single-cell transcriptional profiling of stem and progenitor cells in fat tissue identifies distinct cell subpopulations, one of which inhibits fat growth by signalling to neighbouring cells.
  1. David A. Guertin

    1. David A. Guertin is at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, USA.

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Fat tissue has a remarkable capacity for growth. It can expand in two ways: by increasing the size of individual fat cells (adipocytes), and by making adipocytes from progenitor cells through the process of adipogenesis. Fat is essential for metabolic fitness, but having too much fat in the wrong places can be harmful. Obesity is a precursor to serious medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, which are ravaging health-care systems worldwide. Key to combating obesity is understanding how mature adipocytes develop from precursor cells, but the identity of these precursors has so far been elusive. In a paper in Nature, Schwalie et al.1 define three populations of fat-precursor cell, one of which unexpectedly functions to suppress adipocyte production.

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Nature 559, 41-42 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05120-1

References

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