The cells that control the formation of fat

A study led by researchers in Switzerland has revealed a new cell type that resides in the body's fat depots where it can actively suppress fat cell formation. This discovery was made using single-cell transcriptomics and opens entirely new avenues to combat obesity and related diseases such as diabetes. Image: Two different aspects of fat: left, mature human fat cells grown in a Petri dish (green: lipid droplets); right, a section of mouse fat tissue with in the middle, a blood vessel (red circle) surrounded by Aregs (arrows), newly discovered cells capable of suppressing adipogenesis (credit: B. Deplancke/EPFL). Fat cells, or adipocytes, are at the center of nutritional and metabolic balance. Adipogenesis - the formation of mature fat cells from their precursor cells - has been linked to obesity and related health problems such as cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes. However, it has proven very challenging to determine the identity and molecular properties of fat cell precursors. This is because, next to adipocytes and blood cells, fat tissue contains a large number of stromal cells that are difficult to distinguish using traditional approaches such as genetic labeling.