Adipocyte biology: It is time to upgrade to a new model

Abstract

Globally, the obesity pandemic is profoundly affecting quality of life and economic productivity, but efforts to address this, especially on a pharmacological level, have generally proven unsuccessful to date, serving as a stark demonstration that our understanding of adipocyte biology and pathophysiology is incomplete. To deliver better insight into adipocyte function and obesity, we need improved adipocyte models with a high degree of fidelity in representing the in vivo state and with a diverse range of experimental applications. Adipocyte cell lines, especially 3T3-L1 cells, have been used extensively over many years, but these are limited in terms of relevance and versatility. In this review, I propose that primary adipose-derived stromal/stem cells (ASCs) present a superior model with which to study adipocyte biology ex vivo. In particular, ASCs afford us the opportunity to study adipocytes from different, functionally distinct, adipose depots and to investigate, by means of in vivo/ex vivo studies, the effects of many different physiological and pathophysiological factors, such as age, body weight, hormonal status, diet and nutraceuticals, as well as disease and pharmacological treatments, on the biology of adipocytes and their precursors. This study will give an overview of the characteristics of ASCs and published studies utilizing ASCs, to highlight the areas where our knowledge is lacking. More comprehensive studies in primary ASCs will contribute to an improved understanding of adipose tissue, in healthy and dysfunctional states, which will enhance our efforts to more successfully manage and treat obesity.

Ginsenoside Rb1 as an Anti-Diabetic Agent and Its Underlying Mechanism Analysis

“…Adipocyte cell lines derived from mice, especially 3T3-L1 cells, are extensively used in adipose tissue metabolism studies [80,81]. It was proved that Rb1 significantly stimulated basal and insulin-mediated glucose uptake in a time- and dose-dependent manner in 3T3-L1 adipocytes [75], promoted GLUT1 and GLUT4 translocations to the cell surface via increasing the phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1 and protein kinase B, and stimulated PI3K activity [75].…”

In Depth Quantitative Proteomic and Transcriptomic Characterization of Human Adipocyte Differentiation using the SGBS Cell Line

“…Preadipocyte cell lines, such as murine 3T3‐L1, or primary adipocytes from mice, rats or humans serve as experimental models for human adipogenesis and are widely used to characterize adipogenic regulators and thereby provide substantial insights into the molecular processes regulating adipogenesis. [ 5 ] Nevertheless, there are some constraints on the generalizability to the physiology of human adipogenesis, as for example, 3T3‐L1 cells are spontaneously immortalized aneuploid embryonic fibroblasts and they are derived from mouse. On the other hand, primary human preadipocytes cannot be expanded to high cell numbers without losing their capacity to differentiate into mature adipocytes.…”

Eriocalyxin B Inhibits Adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes by Cell Cycle Arrest

“…In vitro, the 3T3-L1 cell line is considered as a wellestablished and classic cell line that was frequently used for study of adipocyte differentiation, lipid metabolism, insulin signaling, regarding of its differentiation process involving both hypertrophy and hyperplasia of obesity [18,19]. The adipocyte differentiation is regulated by several adipogenicspecific genes, such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptorγ (PPARγ), CCAA/enhancer-binding protein (C/ EBP) family members and fatty acid binding protein (FABP) [20][21][22][23].…”