Adipose tissue acts as an energy depot, provides insulation, and is an important endocrine organ that communicates with other tissues to regulate systemic metabolism.

Most fat in adults is either visceral fat, located deep in the body around internal organs, or subcutaneous fat, located under the skin. Excess visceral, but not subcutaneous, fat is linked to diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

This study, published in Cell Reports, profiles and compares cell type enriched genes in human visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue. An integrative correlation analysis is used to extract this information from bulk RNAseq data, circumventing some limitations of scRNAseq analysis, such as difficulties associated with the extraction and processing of the major functional cell type in adipose tissue, the adipocyte. This study generates a roadmap for adipose tissue biology, to facilitate our understanding of adipose tissue function and metabolic disease development.

Data from this publication is featured in the HPA Tissue Cell Type section, released as part of V21 (https://v21.proteinatlas.org/humanproteome/tissue+cell+type/adipose+tissue)

Link to article (Open access)