Dear All
It is my great pleasure to invite you to our next Nencki Institute Seminar on the 9th of December at 3pm.
Prof. Christian Wolfrum, who is an Associate Professor for Translational Nutritional Biology at the ETH in Zürich, will give a lecture entitled: The Plasticity of Thermogenic Adipocytes
Abstract
The adipose tissue organ is generally perceived to function as a buffer for lipids in times of excess calorie intake. Work in recent years however has demonstrated that adipose tissue also functions as an endocrine organ, which regulates systemic metabolism through cross talk with other organs. Furthermore, it is nowadays accepted that adipose tissue is a heterogeneous organ comprised of different cells with varying morphologies and functionalities. The main heterogeneity, which also accounts for 70% of the cells within adipose tissue, resides in the stromal vascular fraction, which encompasses not only adipocyte precursors, but also immune and other regulatory cell types. Recent work by us utilized a single cell sequencing approach to deconvolute this complexity and identified a new cell type, which is an important regulator of adipose tissue growth through paracrine mechanisms. This unexpected finding demonstrates that tissue heterogeneity often precludes the identification of cell subpopulations with distinct functions using a bulk approach. The other major adipose tissue fraction, which consists mainly of mature adipocytes, characterized by high lipid content and a unique morphology, is believed to be the main functional component within adipose tissue. This particular fraction is comprised of white adipocytes, which can store excess lipids in a unilocular lipid droplet as well as brown, brite or beige adipocytes, which function as thermogenic cells. To deconvolute the heterogeneity of mature adipocytes, we used single nucleus analysis of adipocytes from different anatomical locations in mice and humans under different physiological conditions. This approach enabled us to identify diverse subpopulations of adipocytes with different functionalities, which contribute to regulation of adipose tissue metabolism.
The meeting will take place online as Prof. Wolfrum will present via zoom
The link to the meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/98222231110?pwd=Uyt6Q29BaGlLSXBsUnJRQnpWc0pJZz09
Meeting ID: 982 2223 1110
Passcode: 795926
Best regards
Aleksandra Pękowska