Adipose conversion of ob17 cells and hormone-related events.

The ob17 preadipocyte clonal line has been established from the adipocyte fraction of the epididymal fat pads of adult C57 BL/6J ob/ob mice. In vivo, injection of ouabain-resistant mutant cells (ob 17OR11 cell line) into athymic mice is followed by the formation of fat pads containing ouabain-resistant mature fat cells. In vitro, ob17 cells develop after confluence biochemical and morphological characteristics of adipocytes. The adipose conversion process is best represented by a stochastic model in which a pool of stem cells (adipoblasts) give rise to clusters of adipose cells and to additional stem cells that remain in the population. The role of the different factors involved in such conversion is discussed; (1) factors that enhance the number of susceptible cells (ACF or ACF-like compounds), (2) factors without which no adipose conversion takes place (triiodothyronine, growth hormone and other factors still to be characterized), (3) factors that enhance the expression of the differentiation program (insulin). The early emergence of lipoprotein lipase occurs normally in insulin-depleted medium. The separation of ob17 cells by isopycnic centrifugation shows that lipoprotein lipase is present at high levels in early differentiating cells which are still devoid of late markers, ie glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and triglycerides. These results are discussed with respect to the determination of cellularity during development of adipose tissue in vivo.