Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Paper
  • Published:

Effect of BMI and age on adipose tissue cellularity and differentiation capacity in women

International Journal of Obesity volume 27, pages 889–895 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To study the relation between body mass index (BMI) and age on the one hand and total number of human (pre-) adipocytes and preadipocyte differentiation capacity on the other hand.

SUBJECTS: In total, 189 women undergoing surgical mammary reduction, age range 16–73 y, BMI range 19.7–39.7 kg/m2.

MEASUREMENTS: Differentiation of preadipocytes in primary culture was assessed by morphological criteria, and determination of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase after stimulation of the cells by standardized adipogenic conditions containing isobutyl-methylxanthine, troglitazone or both compounds. The total number of stromal cells (ie preadipocytes) and fat cells per gram of adipose tissue and per body as well as mature fat cell volume were calculated from isolated stromal cells and adipocytes, respectively, and anthropometric measures.

RESULTS: BMI correlated positively to age, mature fat cell size and total number of adipocytes and stromal cells per body (r varying from 0.22 to 0.54, each P<0.05). In contrast, BMI correlated negatively to the number of adipocytes and stromal cells per gram of adipose tissue and the capacity of preadipocytes to differentiate (r varying from −0.20 to −0.37, each P<0.05). No significant correlation was observed between BMI and the ratio of stromal cells to adipocytes. The sample was also divided into three groups: BMI <25 kg/m2 (lean), BMI 25–29.9 kg/m2 (overweight) and BMI ≥30 kg/m2 (obese). The overweight group showed a larger fat cell size but no increase in total fat cell or stromal cell number when compared to the lean subjects. The obese subjects showed larger stromal and fat cell numbers when compared to the lean subjects. Age did not independently correlate to the number of stromal cells or adipocytes per gram of adipose tissue or total body, nor with the capacity of preadipocytes to undergo differentiation and the ratio of stromal cells to adipocytes.

CONCLUSION: There seems to be a constant ratio between the number of adipose tissue stromal cells and adipocytes independently of BMI and age in humans. During adipose tissue expansion, there seems to be both a continuous increase in fat cell size, and in stromal cell and adipocyte number, but the increase in fat cell size apparently precedes the increase in fat cell number. The differentiation capacity of the stromal cells appears to decrease with increasing BMI.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ailhaud G, Hauner H . Development of white adipose tissue. In: Dekker M, Bray GA, Bouchard C, James WPT (eds). Handbook of obesity. Marcel Dekker, New York; 1998. pp 359–378.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Salans LB, Cushman SW, Weismann RE . Studies of human adipose tissue. Adipose cell size and number in nonobese and obese patients. J Clin Invest 1973; 52: 929–941.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Knittle JL, Timmers K, Ginsberg-Fellner E, Brown RE, Katz DP . The growth of adipose tissue in children and adolescents. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of adipose cell-number and size. J Clin Invest 1979; 63: 239–246.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Baum D, Beck RQ, Hammer LD, Brasel JA, Greenwood MR . Adipose tissue thymidine kinase activity in man. Pediatr Res 1986; 20: 118–121.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hauner H, Wabitsch M, Pfeiffer EE . Proliferation and differentiation of adipose tissue derived stromal-vascular cells from children of different ages. In: Björntorp P, Rössner S (eds). Obesity in Europe 88: Proceedings of the First European Congress on Obesity. Libbey: London, Paris; 1989. pp 195–200.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Hauner H, Entenmann G, Wabitsch M, Gaillard D, Ailhaud G, Negrel R, Pfeiffer EF . Promoting effect of glucocorticoids on the differentiation of human adipocyte precursor cells cultured in a chemically defined medium. J Clin Invest 1989; 84: 1663–1670.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Faust IM, Johnson PR, Stern JS, Hirsch J . Diet-induced adipocyte number increase in adult rats: a new model of obesity. Am J Physiol 1978; 235: E279–E286.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Hirsch J, Bachelor B . Adipose tissue cellularity in human obesity. Clin Endocrinol Metab 1976; 5: 299–311.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Petterson P, Van R, Karlsson M, Björntorp P . Adipocyte precursor cells in obese and nonobese humans. Metabolism 1985; 34: 808–812.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hauner H, Wabitsch M, Pfeiffer EF . Differentiation of adipocyte precursor cells from obese and nonobese adult women and from different adipose tissue sites. Horm Metab Res Suppl 1988; 19: 35–39.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Roncari DAK, Lau DCW, Kindler S . Exaggerated replication in culture of adipocyte precursors from massively obese persons. Metabolism 1981; 30: 425–427.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Hauner H, Skurk T, Wabitsch M . Cultures of human adipose precursor cells. Methods Mol Biol 2001; 155: 239–247.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Deurenberg P, Weststrate JA, Seidell JC . Body mass index as a measure of body fatness: age- and sex-specific prediction formulas. Br J Nutr 1991; 65: 105–114.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Hauner H, Entenmann G . Regional variation of adipose differentiation in cultured stromal-vascular cells from the abdominal and femoral adipose tissue of obese women. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1991; 15: 121–126.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Entenmann G, Junger E, Gries FA, Hauner H . Morphological characterization of human pre-adipocytes during in vitro adipoconversion under the control of insulin and cortisol. In: Ditschuneit H, Gries FA, Hauner H, Schusdziarra V, Wechsler JG (eds). Obesity in Europe 93: Proceedings of the Fifth European Congress on Obesity. Libbey: London, Paris; 1994. pp 59–64.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Lau DC, Shillabeer G, Wong KL, Tough SC, Russell JC . Influence of paracrine factors on preadipocyte replication and differentiation. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1990; 14: 193–201.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Shillabeer G, Forden JM, Russell JC, Lau DC . Paradoxically slow preadipocyte replication and differentiation in corpulent rats. Am J Physiol 1990; 258: E368–E376.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Marques BG, Hausman DB, Martin RJ . Association of fat cell size and paracrine growth factors in development of hyperplastic obesity. Am J Physiol 1998; 275: R1898–R1908.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Janke J, Engeli S, Gorzelniak K, Luft FC, Sharma AM . Mature adipocytes inhibit in vitro differentiation of human preadipocytes via angiotensin type 1 receptors. Diabetes 2002; 51: 1699–1707.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deutsches Diabetes-Forschungsinstitut, Düsseldorf, Germany

    V van Harmelen, T Skurk, K Röhrig, Y-M Lee, M Halbleib, I Aprath-Husmann & H Hauner

Authors
  1. V van Harmelen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. T Skurk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K Röhrig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Y-M Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M Halbleib
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. I Aprath-Husmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. H Hauner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H Hauner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

van Harmelen, V., Skurk, T., Röhrig, K. et al. Effect of BMI and age on adipose tissue cellularity and differentiation capacity in women. Int J Obes 27, 889–895 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802314

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802314

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links