ABSTRACT
White adipose tissue (WAT), once regarded as morphologically and functionally bland, is now recognized to be dynamic, plastic, heterogenous, and involved in a wide array of biological processes including energy homeostasis, glucose and lipid handling, blood pressure control, and host defense1. High fat feeding and other metabolic stressors cause dramatic changes in adipose morphology, physiology, and cellular composition1, and alterations in adiposity are associated with insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and type 2 diabetes (T2D)2. Here, we provide detailed cellular atlases of human and murine subcutaneous and visceral white fat at single cell resolution across a range of body weight. We identify subpopulations of adipocytes, adipose stem and progenitor cells (ASPCs), vascular, and immune cells and demonstrate commonalities and differences across species and dietary conditions. We link specific cell types to increased risk of metabolic disease, and we provide an initial blueprint for a comprehensive set of interactions between individual cell types in the adipose niche in leanness and obesity. These data comprise an extensive resource for the exploration of genes, traits, and cell types in the function of WAT across species, depots, and nutritional conditions.
Competing Interest Statement
S.A. has served as a scientific consultant to Third Rock Ventures. A.V.K. has served as a scientific advisor to Sanofi, Amgen, Maze Therapeutics, Navitor Pharmaceuticals, Sarepta Therapeutics, Novartis, Verve Therapeutics, Silence Therapeutics, Veritas International, Color Health, Third Rock Ventures, and Columbia University (NIH); received speaking fees from Illumina, MedGenome, Amgen, and the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research; and received a sponsored research agreement from the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research. M.C. holds equity in Waypoint Bio and is a member of the Nestle Scientific Advisory Board. A.R. is a co-founder and equity holder of Celsius Therapeutics, an equity holder in Immunitas Therapeutics and a scientific advisory board member of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Syros Pharmaceuticals, Asimov and Neogene Therapeutics. A.R. is also an employee of Genentech. All other authors declare no competing interests.
Footnotes
↵† Affiliated with Broad Institute while research was conducted
