Adipose tissue plasticity 

 

Principal Investigator: Joan J. Vendrell Ortega, MD, PhD & Sonia Fernández-Veledo, PhD

 

 

White adipose tissue (WAT) is perhaps the most plastic organ in the body, capable of massive expansion or contraction in response to altered energy balance. This cellular plasticity has been pointed out as a determinant of obesity associated metabolic deregulation. In this context, Adipose Tissue Derived Mesenchymal Stem cells (hADSCs) may represent a masterpiece in regulating growing and functionality of mature adipose cells. Determination of the hADSC characteristics and its contribution to the processes involved in obesity and insulin resistance is one of the main objectives of our group. White-to-brown adipocyte transdifferentiation is also a point of interest in our research. Thus, we are working for the identification of new molecular targets whose regulation promotes the presence of a brown phenotype.