Take-over: multiple mechanisms of inter-adipocyte communication

Adipose tissue mass in mammals is thought to expand with an increase in both volume and total number of the adipocytes. Recent findings suggest that in normal-weight as well as obese individuals, the adipocyte number is set during adolescence prior to adulthood, whereas the subsequent increase in size predominantly drives obesity. The simultaneous existence of large and small adipocytes and their unsynchronized growth, even within the same adipose tissue depot, argues against simple filling-up of emerging adipocytes with lipids and lipid droplets (LDs). Consequently, it is tempting to speculate about signals sent by large adipocytes to order small adipocytes the take-over of the burden of lipid loading. Currently there is experimental evidence for three distinct types of inter-adipocyte signals, i.e. cell-to-cell contacts, adipokines, and other soluble factors and microvesicles. Very recently, microvesicles have been shown (i) to harbour the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored (c)AMP-degrading phosphodiesterase Gce1 and 5'-nucleotidase CD73, (ii) to be released from large adipocytes, (iii) to interact with small adipocytes, and (iv) to transfer Gce1 and CD73 to plasma membranes and LDs of small adipocytes where they degrade (c)AMP. This sequence of events leads to the up-regulation of lipid storage in small adipocytes in response to the microvesicle-encoded 'take-over' signal from large adipocytes. A model is proposed for the maturation of small adipocytes driven by large ones along a gradient of those inter-adipocyte signals. Pharmacological modulation of inter-adipocyte communication and thereby adipocyte maturation may be useful for the therapy of metabolic diseases.