Mast Cell Content and Fatty Acid Metabolism in the Epididymal Fat Pad of Obese Mice

Abstract

Abstract H ellman , B., S. L arsson and S. W estman . Mast cell content and fatty acid metabolism in the epididymal fat pad of obese mice. Acta physiol. scand. 1963. 58. 255–262. — The changes in the mast cell content of the epididymal and subcutaneous adipose tissues were studied in two different types of obesity in mice. Both with the obesity induced by goldthioglucose and that associated with the American variety of the obese‐hyperglycemic syndrome there was a considerable accumulation of mast cells in the fat depots. While the relative number of mast cells was calculated as 3 per 100 epididymal fat cells in the lean controls, it was more than 50 for the obese‐hyperglycemic animals. This finding stresses the importance of expressing metabolic data on lipogenesis directly in terms of the fat cells and not per tissue weight, nitrogen or DNA, when comparing the adipose tissue in normal and obese individuals. The greatly increased mast cell content of the adipose tissue in obesity would be consistent with previous work on the rat, in which it was suggested that the lipase activity of the adipose tissue is concerned with accumulation of fat in depots. However, in so far as heparin did not influence the release of free fatty acids or clearing factor lipase from the isolated epididymal adipose tissue, no in vitro effect of heparin was demonstrated.