The study was designed to investigate the cellular mechanisms underlying the differential fat expansion in different fat depots in wild type (WT) and ob/ob (OB) mice. At 6 weeks old, no differences in fat mass were found between SAT and VAT in WT mice, while O-SAT showed significantly higher weight than that of O-VAT. The average adipocyte size of SAT (~ 4133.47 μm2) was smaller than that of VAT (~ 7438.91 μm2) in OB mice. O-SAT preadipocytes gained higher triglyceride contents and higher levels of PPARγ and C/EBPα than did O-VAT preadipocytes upon in vitro differentiation. W-SAT and W-VAT displayed no significant differences in fatty acid uptake, while 1.36 fold significantly higher fatty acid uptake was found in O-SAT compared to O-VAT. Approximately 52% of the radioactivity recovered in cellular lipids was found in TAG in O-SAT, which was significantly higher than the other three adipocyte types. Significantly more radiolabelled oleic acid was β-oxidized to CO2 in adipocytes from O-VAT than that from O-SAT. ATP production was significantly lower in W-SAT compared with W-VAT, whereas no significantly ATP level was observed between O-SAT and O-VAT. Expression of UCP-1 in SAT from either WT or OB mice was significantly higher than the counterpart of VAT, which demonstrated higher uncoupled respiration and lower oxidative phosphorylation in SAT. Together, a combined increase in adipogenesis and FA uptake, and decreases in β-oxidation and ATP production, contributed to greater expansion of SAT compared to VAT in obese mice.
Keywords: adipogenesis; fatty acid uptake; subcutaneous adipose tissue; viseral adipose tissue; β-oxidation.