Determinants of Fat Tissue Expansion

Adipose tissue (fat) is a complicated organ that can undergo massive expansion in response to nutritional overload. The Boudina lab discovered adipose progenitors with potent anti-adipogenic potential. These cells, which are unique to visceral fat and found in both humans and mice, could explain the propensity of visceral fat to grow by hypertrophy in response to caloric excess. They also identified a set of regulatory events that control healthy adipose expansion. This finding of heterogeneity in the adipose tissue reveals potential opportunities for therapeutic intervention to enable healthy adipose expansion and combat cardiometabolic disease.