Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2014) 35 S27.1 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.35.S27.1

ECE2014 Symposia Brown Adipose Tissue (3 abstracts)

White, brown, and pink adipocytes: the extraordinary plasticity of the adipose organ

Saverio Cinti


Department Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Ancona, Italy.


Adipocyte is a parenchymal lipid-rich cell contained into a multi-depot organ. White adipocytes store energy, brown adipocytes burns energy for thermogenesis. A third type of adipocyte appear in the adipose organ of females during pregnancy and lactation: pink adipocyte. Pink adipocytes produce and secrete milk.

The adipose organ is provided with an extraordinary plasticity because during cold exposure increase the brown component to satisfy the thermogenetic needs. When exposed to positive energy balance increase the white component to increase the storage needs. During pregnancy increase the pink component in order to satisfy the pups nutritional needs.

At cellular levels these adaptations seem to occur with a direct transformation of adult cells reprogramming their genome in order to change phenotype and function (transdifferentiation).

Understanding the underling mechanisms could help to develop new strategies to combat the metabolic syndrome (browning of the adipose organ) and the breast cancer (pinking).

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