AJP - Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 240, Issue 1 47-E53, Copyright © 1981 by American Physiological Society
Adipocyte size and number in dietary obesity resistant and susceptible rats
B. E. Obst, R. A. Schemmel, D. Czajka-Narins and R. Merkel
Fat depot cellularity was assessed in overfed dietary obesity resistant S
5B/Pl (S) and susceptible Osborne-Mendel (OM) rats. Cell number and lipid
per cell were determined for three fat depots in both 24- and 105-day-old
rats. Between these two ages, fat cell number doubled in inguinal fat
depots of S rats fed high- or low-fat diets and OM rats fed a low-fat diet,
but quadrupled in OM rats fed a high-fat diet. The size of adipocytes in
this depot was influenced by strain but not by diet. Compared to normal
weight S rats, 24-day-old overfed S rats had twice as many adipocytes in
the perirenal-retroperitoneal fat depot. Overfed OM rats had 3 times
perirenal-retroperitoneal fat depot. Overfed OM rats had 3 times as many.
In OM rats fed the high-fat diet, there was a 16-fold increase in adipocyte
number between 24 and 105 days of age. Overfeeding caused a slight increase
in perirenal-retroperitoneal adipocyte size in 24-day-old rats but had
little influence on cell size in 105-day-old rats.
