Hypertrophied human adipocyte spheroids as in vitro model of weight gain and adipose tissue dysfunction

Abstract

The rise in obesity prevalence has created an urgent need for new and improved methods to study human adipocytes and the pathogenic effects of weight gain in vitro. Despite numerous studies showing the advantages of culturing adipocyte progenitors as 3D structures, the majority continue using traditional 2D cultures which result in small, multilocular adipocytes with poor representability. We hypothesized that providing differentiating pre-adipocytes with a vascular growth niche would mimic in vivo adipogenesis and improve the differentiation process. Here we present a simple, easily applicable culture protocol that allows for the differentiation and culturing of human adipocytes with a more unilocular morphology and larger lipid droplets than previous protocols. We moreover offer a protocol for inducing adipocyte enlargement in vitro, resulting in larger lipid droplets and development of several key features of adipocyte dysfunction, including altered adipokine secretions and impaired lipolysis. Taken together, our hypertrophied human adipocyte spheroids offer an improved culture system for studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms causing metabolic dysfunction and inflammation during weight gain.