Acute and Chronic Effects of Adipose Tissue Growth on Cellular and Metabolic Processes

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Society has a preoccupation with fat. This preoccupation is far-reaching and extends from our concern with body fat to food and agriculture. For example in agriculture, there is a focus is on the amount and type of fat in dairy products and livestock. As a population or individual, we do not want to be too fat or too skinny. We are also fixated on how much fat we have and where we store it, whether it is around our stomachs or around our hips and thighs. We know that not all fat is equal and that it behaves differently based on where it is stored. Though we are preoccupied with fat as a society, we don't know much about the fat cell itself and the environment in which the fat cell lives. The proposed program of research seeks to understand how fat cells are programmed to store the amount of fat that they do and how fat cell programming affects its surrounding tissue environment and biological systems. To answer our questions we first want to determine if early-life programming of the fat cell effects 1) its behaviour later in life, 2) its surround environment, and 3) how our bodies use sugar, fat and energy. We also want to know if the effects of early-life programming of fat cells are different in men and women. If we can understand why a fat cell behaves the way it does we can use that information to target changes in fat cell behaviour. The findings from the proposed research program will contribute towards changing how we think about the fat cell and its impact on biological systems. This information would potentially benefit our society through impacting health, agriculture, and food science industries.