Adipose stem cells and obesity

  Obesity, the mention of this word many people unfortunately hit. In recent decades, the incidence of obesity (BMI≧30, young children are not suitable for adult standards to assess) in China has increased sharply, not only seen in adults, but also occurs equally in children and adolescents.    In fact, obesity is no longer only a name for overweight, obesity has been recognized as a kind of metabolic disease. Obesity is often accompanied by complications such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular disease, which seriously affects the quality of life of patients and has become a major public health problem. In order to treat obesity, a lot of research has been conducted to find possible treatments, and it has been found that adipose stem cells are closely related to obesity.    Studies have shown that adipose stem cells are found in the lining of blood vessels in adipose tissue and that they can differentiate into endothelial cells, thus improving postnatal vascularization. In fact, activated adipocytes secrete many angiogenic factors, including leptin, hepatocyte growth factor, granulocyte-macrophage stimulating factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, epidermal growth factor-2, transforming growth factor beta, etc. These factors either act alone or in combination with the angiogenic system to stimulate fat volume.    Adipocytes and the blood vessels that travel between them The abnormal increase in fat volume leads to obesity. Adipocytes become hypertrophied, lose their function, and the imbalance between adipogenesis and catabolism weakens the transduction mechanisms of key signals for adipogenesis, making them less sensitive to external signals and interrupting this signaling process. The increased inflammatory cells and macrophages in obesity also clearly contribute to the vascularization of adipose tissue. This supports the notion that the development of adipose tissue requires the continuous reconstruction and maturation of the vascular system as well as its networking. The plasticity of the adipose tissue vascular system may also represent the result of a net balance between angiogenic factors as well as inhibitory factors.  The above observations have led scholars to believe in the possibility of selecting the vascular system as a target organ for the treatment of obesity. Multiple angiogenic factors expressed in adipose tissue are very likely to be survivors of the vascular system. For example, vascular endothelial growth factor and insulin growth factor are important endothelial cell angiogenic survival factors, and withdrawal of these factors can lead to endothelial cell apoptosis. Thus, angiogenesis antagonist drugs have the potential to block the action of these survival factors, thereby inhibiting the already existing vascular system and reducing the size of the fat.    Significant weight loss in treated mice with angiogenesis inhibitors A number of known angiogenesis inhibitors and endogenous protein inhibitors (including vasopressors and endothelial inhibitors) have now been found to be associated with adipose tissue loss and weight loss in animal studies. An additional benefit of applying these inhibitors is that they normalize the body’s sensitivity to insulin, thereby preventing the development of type 2 diabetes while preventing weight gain.