title: Mechanisms and metabolic implications of regional differences among fat depots.
abstract: Fat distribution is closely linked to metabolic disease risk. Distribution varies with sex, genetic background, disease state, certain drugs and hormones, development, and aging. Preadipocyte replication and differentiation, developmental gene expression, susceptibility to apoptosis and cellular senescence, vascularity, inflammatory cell infiltration, and adipokine secretion vary among depots, as do fatty-acid handling and mechanisms of enlargement with positive-energy and loss with negative-energy balance. How interdepot differences in these molecular, cellular, and pathophysiological properties are related is incompletely understood. Whether fat redistribution causes metabolic disease or whether it is a marker of underlying processes that are primarily responsible is an open question.
authors.affiliation: Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging.
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tchkonia
authors.affiliation: Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Thomou
authors.affiliation: Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, Division of Digestive Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Iordanes
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Karagiannides
authors.affiliation: Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, Division of Digestive Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Charalabos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pothoulakis
authors.affiliation: Endocrine Research Unit Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging.
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kirkland
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005223:Fats / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005223:Fats