Adipocyte form and function: a useful model for metabolic disease?

Once considered to be no more than an energy storage site for the body’s fat, our understanding of fat (adipocyte) biology has increased substantially in the past 15-20 years. Although adipocytes are the principal store of fat (triacylglycerol), the cells also respond to hormones and other molecular proteins by releasing substrates, hormones and cytokines (adipokines) in a regulated manner. Adipocytes are now recognised as possessing endocrine function and as such they play an important role in metabolic homeostasis. Over that past 10 years I have been interested in the mechanism(s) that control the turnover of stored triacylglycerol in an effort to understand the role that adipocytes may play in disease states such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome. More recently, we have started to explore the opportunities afforded through imaging techniques to relate the structure of lipid stores to the development of adipocyte and lipid dysfunction associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.