Decoding the Adipocyte Epigenome: Differentiation, Metabolic Memory, and Obesity

Adipocytes play a central role in energy balance by integrating lipid storage, thermogenesis, and endocrine regulation. Their diversity-comprising white, brown, and beige adipocytes-emerges through tightly coordinated transcriptional and epigenetic programs. In addition to transcription factors, epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation and histone modifications mediated by acetyltransferases, methyltransferases, and demethylases shape the chromatin states that govern adipocyte differentiation and function. The concept of metabolic memory refers to the long-lasting imprint that environmental and nutritional cues make on cells and tissues; it can facilitate rapid adaptation to subsequent challenges but also predispose organisms to metabolic dysfunction and related complications. Recent technological advances have revealed that cold exposure and obesity leave epigenomic marks on adipocytes, providing mechanistic insights into how metabolic memory is encoded. This review highlights the fundamental principles of the adipose tissue epigenome, the regulation of adipocyte identity, and how epigenomic memory links environmental history to long-term metabolic health.