Molecular and Cellular Research on Adipose Tissue Development and Functions

Dear Colleagues,

The prevalence of obese people is increasing dramatically worldwide. Adipose tissue, as a central organ of energy homeostasis, directly affects weight change and causes obesity. Understanding adipose tissue development may contribute to identifying novel and targeted therapies for obesity and related metabolic diseases. Murine knockout mouse models and in vitro adipocyte differentiation are commonly used to study adipose tissue development and adipogenesis. Adipogenesis is classified as a two-step cell fate transition: The early stages of adipogenesis are controlled by the master adipogenic transcription factors PPAR-γ and CEBP-α. The later stages of adipogenesis are regulated by lipogenic transcription factors, such as ChREBP and SREBP. Mammals have two types of adipose tissue: white adipose tissue (WAT), for energy storage, and brown adipose tissue (BAT), for thermogenesis. Unlike WAT, which contains large uniocular lipid droplets and few mitochondria, BAT has multiple small multilocular lipid droplets and higher mitochondrial density. While the factors and molecular mechanisms of early adipogenesis are shared by both white and brown adipogenesis, late adipogenesis is more important for postnatal fat expansion in WAT.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Transcriptional and epigenomic regulation of adipose tissue development;
• Metabolic signaling in adipocytes;
• Heterogeneity of white, brown, and beige adipose tissue;
• Genetic mouse models and recent molecular techniques for adipose tissue studies;
• Obesity, lipodystrophy, fibrosis, inflammation, and other fat-related diseases.

Dr. Younghoon Jang
Guest Editor

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