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Metabolism

Fat discovers a new ancestor

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 13, pages 207–208 (2012)Cite this article

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Analysis of the morphology of mouse epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT) at postnatal days 6–8 (P6–8), when adipocytes have begun to form, led the authors to hypothesize that ECs may give rise to adipocytes. To examine this, they carried out lineage-tracing experiments using mice in which activation of the promoter for the endothelial marker vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin is detected via X-gal staining. In addition to ECs, at P6–8, adipocytes in eWAT and subcutaneous WAT were positive for X-gal. Interestingly, X-gal staining was also observed in the interscapular brown fat depot, and, consistently, it colocalized with uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), a brown adipocyte marker.

the fate of the two cell types may be plastic

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Tran, K. V. et al. The vascular endothelium of the adipose tissue gives rise to both white and brown fat cells. Cell Metab. 15, 222–229 (2012) Article

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  1. Rachel David
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David, R. Fat discovers a new ancestor. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13, 207–208 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3306

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