Review
Lipidomics of brown and white adipose tissue: Implications for energy metabolism

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbalip.2020.158788Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Adipose tissue (AT) lipidome profiles influence global energy metabolism.

  • Distinct white and brown AT lipidomes reflect their physiological functions.

  • Obesity-induced changes in AT lipidomics contribute to metabolic dysfunction.

  • AT-produced lipids govern energy metabolism.

Abstract

Adipose tissue exerts multiple vital functions that critically maintain energy balance, including storing and expending energy, as well as secreting factors that systemically modulate nutrient metabolism. Since lipids are the major constituents of the adipocytes, it is unsurprising that the lipid composition of these cells plays a critical role in maintaining their functions and communicating with other organs and cells. In both positive and negative energy balance conditions, lipids and free fatty acids secreted from adipocytes exert either beneficial or detrimental effects in other tissues, such as the liver, pancreas and muscle. The way the adipocytes communicate with other organs tightly depends on the nature of their lipidome composition. Notwithstanding, the lipidome composition of the adipocytes is affected by physiological factors such as adipocyte type, gender and age, but also by environmental cues such as diet composition, thermal stress and physical activity. Here we provide an updated overview on how the adipose tissue lipidome profile is shaped by different physiological and environmental factors and how these changes impact the way the adipocytes regulate whole-body energy metabolism.

Section snippets

Impact of adipocytes' lipidomic profile on energy metabolism

The ability to store lipids in cells and tissues is a crucial characteristic of nearly all living species, from plants to mammals. Such ability serves to conserve energy for future use when energy sources become scarce. In order to prevent the effects of lipotoxicity, cells must be able to buffer and store excess lipids in an inert form known as ‘lipid droplets’ (LDs), also referred to as oil bodies or lipid bodies [1,2]. Cells efficiently convert lipids and free-fatty acids (FFAs) into neutral

Differences between brown and white fat lipidome profile

The distinct lipidomes of white, beige, and brown adipocytes reflect their different organelle composition and cell functions. In a lipidomic analysis of primary white, beige and brown adipocytes, Schweizer and colleagues [18] reveal major differences between the thermogenic fat cells and the non-thermogenic white adipocytes. This study demonstrates that thermogenic adipocytes possess higher contents of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylcholine (PC) fractions, with longer (C > 36)

Adipocyte lipidome and metabolic syndrome

Environmental factors such as a high-fat-high-sugar based diet and a sedentary lifestyle are key factors leading to metabolic maladaptation which ultimately yields obesity and type-2 diabetes, among other metabolic diseases and comorbidities [23,24]. Obesity-induced insulin resistance in glucose demanding tissues such as adipocytes and skeletal muscle, precedes fasting hyperglycemia and type-2 diabetes [25]. There are multiple mechanisms proposed to explain the onset of insulin resistance in

Lipidome dynamics in adaptive thermogenesis

Thermogenesis is the process of heat production in living organisms. It occurs in all homeothermic animals, and also in a few species of thermogenic plants [44,45]. In mammals, the thermogenic fat, namely BAT and beige fat, are the main tissues orchestrating the thermogenic adaptation in response to cold in order to maintain body temperature. Although UCP1-independent mechanisms of heat generation have been recently reported [46], the promotion of uncoupled mitochondrial respiration through

Conclusions and perspectives

The longstanding notion that lipids could merely serve as an energy supply for cells, or as substrates for composing cell membranes, has significantly evolved over the last few years. It has been noted that lipids play a critical role in metabolism by triggering their specific signaling pathways to regulate cellular function and processes such as differentiation, gene expression, apoptosis, mitochondrial bioenergetics, and substrate uptake, among others. Clearly, all the studies herein

Abbreviations

    12-HEPE

    12-Hydroxyeicosapentaenoic acid

    12,13-diHOME

    12,13-dihydroxy-9Z-octadecenoic

    AGPS

    alkyl-glycerone phosphate synthase

    Akt

    protein kinase B

    aSMase

    acid sphingomyelinase

    cAMP

    cyclic adenosine monophosphate

    CD36

    cluster of differentiation 36

    COX

    cyclooxygenase

    CRLS1

    Cardiolipin Synthase 1

    Cyp450

    cytochrome P450

    DAG

    diacylglicerol

    DHA

    docosahexaenoic acid

    Elovl3

    ELOVL fatty acid elongase 3

    Elovl6

    ELOVL fatty acid elongase 6

    EPA

    eicosapentaenoic acid

    FAs

    fatty acids

    Fatp1

    fatty acid transport protein 1

    FFAs

    free-fatty acids

Declaration of competing interest

Y.-H.T. is an inventor on an US patent application related to 12,13-diHOME.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants R01DK077097 and R01DK102898 (to Y-H.T), P30DK036836 (to Joslin Diabetes Center's Diabetes Research Center, DRC) from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. L.O.L was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant 2017/08264-8, and by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) grant 427413/2018-4.

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