Adipose tissue

hide

In histology, adipose tissue or body fat or just fat is loose connective tissue composed of adipocytes. Adipose tissue is derived from lipoblasts. Its main role is to store energy in the form of fat, although it also cushions and insulates the body. Obesity or being overweight in humans and most animals does not depend on body weight but on the amount of body fat—specifically, adipose tissue. Two types of adipose tissue exist: white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT). Adipose tissue also serves as an important endocrine organ by producing hormones such as leptin, resistin and the cytokine TNFα. The formation of adipose tissue appears to be controlled by the adipose gene. Adipose tissue was first identified by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in 1551.\

For more information about Adipose tissue, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with fat cells

results timeline


Disabling enzyme allows mice to gorge without becoming obese, new study finds

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jan 11, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (13) | comments 1

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a new enzyme that plays a far more important role than expected in controlling the breakdown of fat. In a new study to be published Jan. 11 in the journal ...


Joslin study identifies protein that produces 'good' fat

Medicine & Health / Research

created Aug 20, 2008 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 0

A study by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center has shown that a protein known for its role in inducing bone growth can also help promote the development of brown fat, a "good" fat that helps in the expenditure of energy ...


Protein made by fat cells may increase risk of heart attack in older adults

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jul 31, 2008 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Adiponectin, a protein produced by fat cells, may play a pivotal and counterintuitive role in cardiovascular health for older Americans according to a new study accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & ...


Replica of the world's best preserved wooly mammoth - a 40,000 year old baby named Lyuba

Baby mammoth preserved in frozen soil heads to Chicago

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 04, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 3

Sucked to her death in a muddy river bed, a baby woolly mammoth spent 40,000 years frozen in the Siberian permafrost where her body was so perfectly preserved traces of her mother's milk remained in her belly.


Brown fat cells make 'spare tires' shrink

Medicine & Health / Research

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Bonn have found a new signalling pathway which stimulates the production and function of so-called brown fat cells. They propose using these cells that serve as a "natural ...


Researchers identify new stem cell

Medicine & Health / Research

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have discovered a new type of stem cell in the skin that acts surprisingly like certain stem cells found in embryos: both can generate fat, bone, cartilage, and even nerve cells. These newly-described ...


Scientists create energy-burning brown fat in mice

Scientists create energy-burning brown fat in mice

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jul 29, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that they can engineer mouse and human cells to produce brown fat, a natural energy-burning type of fat that counteracts obesity. If ...


Researchers find possible use for the vine that ate the South

Chemistry / Other

created Sep 03, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Kudzu, the fast-growing vine that has gobbled up some 10 million acres in the Southeast, may prove to be a valuable dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome, a condition that affects 50 million Americans, say researchers ...


New genetic mechanism that controls body's fat-building process found

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Aug 26, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 1

At a time of alarming increases in obesity and associated diseases -- and fiery debates about the cost of health care -- a UCF research team has identified a new genetic mechanism that controls the body's fat-building process.


Fat-regenerating 'stem cells' found in mice

Biology /

created Oct 10, 2008 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers have identified stem cells with the capacity to build fat, according to a report in the October 17th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. Although they have yet to show that the cells can renew ...


Link between obesity and diabetes discovered

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jul 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

A Monash University study has proven a critical link between obesity and the onset of Type 2 diabetes, a discovery which could lead to the design of a drug to prevent the disease.


Molecular switch found in mice could lead to future obesity treatments

Medicine & Health / Research

created Aug 20, 2008 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

A surprise discovery -- that calorie-burning brown fat can be produced experimentally from muscle precursor cells in mice -- raises the prospect of new ways to fight obesity and overweight, say scientists from Dana-Farber ...


Imaging Assay Tracks Growth of Fat Cells in living mouse

Newly identified cells make fat

Biology /

created Oct 04, 2008 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

To understand where fat comes from, you have to start with a skinny mouse. By using such a creature, and observing the growth of fat after injections of different kinds of immature cells, scientists at the ...


Scientists map molecular regulation of fat-cell genetics

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 04, 2008 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

A research team led by Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has used state-of-the-art genetic technology to map thousands ...


Researchers identify how stressed fat tissue malfunctions

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jul 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers, in a collaboration with colleagues from the University of Leipzig, Germany, have identified a signaling pathway that is operational in intra-abdominal fat, the fat depot ...