1;Foreword;6 2;Contents;8 3;Contributors;10 4;Pathological Alteration of Human Adipose Tissue in Obesity;14 4.1;1 Natural History of Human Obesity;14 4.2;2 Human White Tissue in Obesity: Inflammation, Metabolic Dysfunction and Fibrosis;15 4.3;3 Adipose Cell Plasticity;17 4.4;4 Multiple Inflammatory Cells Involved;18 4.5;5 Perturbed Phenotypes of Preadipocytes and Adipocytes by Inflammation;19 4.6;6 Importance of the Extracellular Matrix;20 4.7;7 Specific Roles of Chemokines in Human Adipose Tissue: Example of Rantes/CCL5;20 4.8;8 Somatic Consequences of Inflammation: Visceral Adipose Tissue, Fatty Acids, Adipokines and Lipokines as the Guilty Players;21 4.9;9 Conclusion;22 4.10;References;23 5;Dynamics of Human Adipose Tissue. Regulatory Mechanisms and Consequences for Fat Cells and the Whole Body;27 5.1;1 Background;27 5.2;2 Age of Human Fat Cells;28 5.3;3 Adipose Cellularity;29 5.4;4 Clinical Consequences of Adipose Tissue Cellularity;30 5.5;5 Conclusions;31 5.6;References;31 6;Metabolism of Fatty Acids in Adipocytes;32 6.1;1 Introduction;32 6.2;2 De Novo Lipogenesis;33 6.3;3 Lipoprotein Lipase and FA Uptake;34 6.4;4 FA Esterification;38 6.5;5 Lipolysis;39 6.6;6 Triglyceride-fatty Acid Cycle;41 6.7;7 BAT and Fatty Acid beta-Oxidation;44 6.8;8 Therapeutic Perspectives;47 6.9;References;48 7;The Role of Hypoxia in Adipocyte Function and Dysfunction;55 7.1;1 Introduction;56 7.2;2 Hypoxia in Adipose Tissue in Obesity;57 7.3;3 Molecular Markers of Hypoxia;58 7.4;4 Hypoxia and Adipocyte Function;59 7.5;5 Hypoxia and Inflammatory Adipokines in Human Adipocytes;60 7.6;6 Glucose and Oxidative Metabolism;62 7.7;7 Pathological Implications of Hypoxia-induced Changes in Adipocytes: Insulin Resistance;64 7.8;8 Preadipocytes;65 7.9;9 Coda;67 7.10;References;67 8;Brown Adipose Tissue In Humans: A New Target for Anti-Obesity Therapy;71 8.1;1 Introduction;71 8.2;2 Origin of BAT;72 8.3;3 Genes and Signaling Pathways in BAT;73 8.4;4 Future Development;74 8.4.1;4.1 Activation, Substrate Preference, and Metabolic Role of Human BAT;74 8.4.2;4.2 Are There Different Kinds of hBAT?;75 8.5;References;75 9;Adipose Tissue Dysfunction: A Multistep Process;77 9.1;1 Introduction;77 9.2;2 What Gets it All Started: Hypoxia;78 9.3;3 The Extracellular Matrix in Adipose Tissue: A Source of Stress;79 9.4;4 Inflammation: A Late Stage Phenomenon?;81 9.5;5 Good Fat Pads and Bad Fat Pads;82 9.6;6 The Unfolded Protein Response, an Additional Stressor for Adipose Tissue;83 9.7;References;84 10;Fat Cell Progenitors: Origins and Plasticity;86 10.1;1 Introduction;86 10.2;2 Developmental Origins of Adipocytes;87 10.3;3 Human Adipose Tissue Contains a Pool of Adipocyte Progenitors;90 10.4;4 Human Adipose-Derived Stem (hMADS) Cell as a Cellular Model for Investigating Self-renewal of Human Adipocyte Progenitors;90 10.5;5 Plasticity of hMADS Cells;91 10.6;6 hMADS Cells are Appropriate to Study Human Adipocyte Differentiation;92 10.7;7 FGF2 and Activin A, Both Secreted by hMADS Cells, are Key Regulators of Self-Renewal;93 10.8;References;94 11;Transcriptional Regulation of Brown and White Adipogenesis;97 11.1;1 White Fat Cells;97 11.2;2 Brown Fat Cells;98 11.3;References;99 12;Transcriptional Control of Gene Expression in Different Adipose Tissue Depots;101 12.1;1 Introduction;102 12.2;2 Identification of a Group of Genes Highly Expressed in Visceral White Adipose Depots;103 12.3;3 PPARgamma Represses Visceral White Gene Expression in a Synthetic Ligand-dependent Manner and Requires Helix 7 of its Ligand-binding Domain;104 12.4;4 The CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein a (C/EBPa) and C-Terminal Binding Proteins (CtBP1/2) Facilitate the Repressive Effects of PPARy;105 12.5;5 Conclusion;106 12.6;References;107 13;Epigenetic Approaches to Adipose Biology;109 13.1;1 Adipocytes, Health and Disease;110 13.2;2 The Transcriptional Basis of Adipogenesis;110 13.3;3 Epigenetic Approaches to Studies of Adipogenesis;112 13.4;4 Epigenetic Approaches to Other Aspects of Metabolism;114 13.5;5 Co