Submitted on August 31, 2007
Revised on November 5, 2007
Accepted on November 27, 2007
Conditionally immortalized white pre-adipocytes: a novel adipocyte model
D. L. Morganstein, M. Christian, J. J. O. Turner, M. G. Parker, and R. White
Molecular Endocrinology, Institute for Reproductive and Developmental Biology, London W12 0NN
Corresponding Author: Roger.White{at}imperial.ac.uk
This study describes a novel approach to generate conditionally immortalised pre-adipocyte cell lines from white adipose tissue (IMWAT) that can be induced to differentiate into white adipocytes even after expansion in culture. Such adipocytes express markers of white fat such as PPARyamma and aP2 but not brown fat markers, have an intact insulin signalling pathway and express proinflammatory cytokines. They can be readily transduced with adenoviral vectors allowing them to be utilised to investigate the consequences of depletion of specific adipocyte factors using shRNA. This approach has been used to study the effect of reduced expression of the nuclear receptor co-repressor RIP140, a regulator of adipocyte function. The depletion of RIP140 results in changes in metabolic gene expression that resembles that in adipose tissue of the RIP140 null mouse. Thus IMWAT cells provide a novel model for adipocytes that are derived from pre-adipocytes rather than fibroblasts and provide an alternative system to primary pre-adipocytes for the investigation of adipocyte function.
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