Stromal Vascular Cells and Adipogenesis: Cells within Adipose Depots Regulate Adipogenesis

摘要

A collection of investigations indicate the importance of adipose tissue stromal/stem cells to vasculogenesis and angiogenesis during adipogenesis. Early in development the stro- mal-vascular (S-V) elements control and dictate the extent of adipogenesis. For instance, the vasculature and connective tissue collagen matrix develops before overt adipocyte differen- tiation. Definitive studies of human adipose tissue stem cells (ADSC) provided an under- standing of stem cell identity and function. In this regard, a novel vascular stem cell theory proposes that ADSC are a mixed population of vascular stem cells (VSC) with differential potential proportional to the angiogenic potential of the vasculature. The differential potential of VSC can range considerably in a continuous fashion and can include vascular smooth cells, endothelial cells (EC) and adipocytes. These observations are consistent with fetal adipose tissue studies that show location-dependent angiogenic potential ranging from more to less in regards to a predominant presence of EC and developing arterioles before overt adipogen- esis