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Updated: Sep 26, 2025
Isolation of Adipogenic and Fibro-Inflammatory Stromal Cell Subpopulations from Murine Intra-Abdominal Adipose Depots
Published on: August 16, 2020
Characterization of adipose depot-specific stromal cell populations by single-cell mass cytometry
Ju Hee Lee1,2, Kafi N Ealey1, Yash Patel1
1Translational Medicine Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Insights
Investigating white adipose tissue (WAT), this study reveals depot-specific adipose precursor cells (APCs) and highlights their pro-fibrotic response to high-fat diets, offering new therapeutic insights.
Area of Science:
- Adipose tissue biology
- Metabolic disease research
- Immunology
Background:
- Rising obesity and metabolic diseases underscore the need for understanding adipose tissue.
- White adipose tissue (WAT) plays a crucial role in energy homeostasis and metabolic health.
- Cellular heterogeneity within WAT influences its function and disease association.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize immune and stromal cells in visceral and subcutaneous WAT depots.
- To investigate cellular responses to high-fat diet (HFD) using advanced proteomic techniques.
- To explore the potential of adipose precursor cells (APCs) as therapeutic targets.
Main Methods:
- Utilized cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) to analyze 32 surface marker proteins.
- Compared immune and stromal cell populations in visceral and subcutaneous WAT under normal and HFD conditions.
- Quantified protein expression to identify cellular subtypes and functional states.
Main Results:
- Identified depot-distinct subtypes of adipose precursor cells (APCs) with varying adipogenic and fibrogenic potential.
- Observed comparable immune cell proportions between depots in steady state.
- Detected significant pro-fibrotic changes in APCs alongside pro-inflammatory immune cell shifts under HFD.
- Demonstrated APCs as early responders to dietary challenges.
Conclusions:
- CyTOF provides a valuable alternative/complement to single-cell transcriptomics for adipose tissue analysis.
- APCs exhibit depot-specific characteristics and respond dynamically to dietary challenges.
- Understanding APC plasticity is crucial for developing therapeutic strategies for obesity and metabolic diseases.
Abstract:
The increased prevalence of obesity and metabolic diseases has heightened interest in adipose tissue biology and its potential as a therapeutic target. To better understand cellular heterogeneity and complexity of white adipose tissue (WAT), we employed cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) to characterize immune and stromal cells in visceral and subcutaneous WAT depots under normal and high-fat diet feeding, by quantifying the expression levels of 32 surface marker proteins. We observed comparable proportions of immune cells in two WAT depots under steady state, but depot-distinct subtypes of adipose precursor cells (APC), suggesting differences in their adipogenic and fibrogenic potential. Furthermore, in addition to pro-inflammatory immune cell shifts, significant pro-fibrotic changes were observed in APCs under high-fat diet, suggesting that APCs are early responders to dietary challenges. We propose CyTOF as a complementary and alternative tool to current high-throughput single-cell transcriptomic analyses to better understand the function and plasticity of adipose tissue.
