An In Vivo/Ex Vivo Study Design to Investigate Effects of Chronic Conditions and Therapeutic Compounds on Adipose Stem Cells in Animal Models

Abstract

With the dramatic rise in the global prevalence of obesity and lack of success at addressing this public health issue, there is an urgency to develop new tools with which to study obesity and putative weight-loss products. Pre-adipocyte cell lines have been widely used as a model for adipocyte biology and obesity over the past four decades, but the applicability of results from these cell lines is limited. This chapter will describe an in vivo/ex vivo study design that can be employed to examine the effects of diets and other chronic physiological or pathophysiological conditions on the biology of adipose stem cells (ASCs), as a model for the progression and management of obesity. This type of study design is superior to short-term in vitro experiments in pre-adipocyte cell lines or ASCs, as chronic in vivo conditions cannot be recapitulated in cell culture. Rather, this in vivo/ex vivo study design provides researchers the opportunity to assess the progressive effects of long-term insults or interventions on the reprogramming of ASC behavior. In addition, this model allows us to study the metabolic effects of chronic conditions and therapeutic compounds at a systemic level as well as at the level of adipose tissue and ASCs, in order to provide a whole-body context for the findings.