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Metabolic adaptation and maladaptation in adipose tissue

Nature Metabolism volume 1, pages 189–200 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Adipose tissue possesses the remarkable capacity to control its size and function in response to a variety of internal and external cues, such as nutritional status and temperature. The regulatory circuits of fuel storage and oxidation in white adipocytes and thermogenic adipocytes (brown and beige adipocytes) play a central role in systemic energy homeostasis, whereas dysregulation of the pathways is closely associated with metabolic disorders and adipose tissue malfunction, including obesity, insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and fibrosis. Recent studies have uncovered new regulatory elements that control the above parameters and provide new mechanistic opportunities to reprogram fat cell fate and function. In this Review, we provide an overview of the current understanding of adipocyte metabolism in physiology and disease and also discuss possible strategies to alter fuel utilization in fat cells to improve metabolic health.

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Fig. 1: Control of fatty acid storage and oxidation.
Fig. 2: Cellular metabolism in thermogenic fat cells.
Fig. 3: Adaptation and maladaptation in adipose tissue.

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Acknowledgements

We apologize for being unable to cite papers that have contributed to the progress of this field owing to space limitations. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (DK97441, DK112268, and DK108822); the Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation to S.K.; and the Claudia Adams Barr Program to E.T.C.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cancer Biology, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    Edward T. Chouchani

  2. Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Edward T. Chouchani

  3. Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Shingo Kajimura

  4. UCSF Diabetes Center, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Shingo Kajimura

  5. Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Shingo Kajimura

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  1. Edward T. Chouchani
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  2. Shingo Kajimura
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E.T.C and S.K. conceived the project and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Edward T. Chouchani or Shingo Kajimura.

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Chouchani, E.T., Kajimura, S. Metabolic adaptation and maladaptation in adipose tissue. Nat Metab 1, 189–200 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-018-0021-8

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