A technique to study the relationship between adipose cell size and lipogenesis in a heterogeneous population of adipose cells.

A technique is described for the calculation of the incorporation of radioactive substrate into lipid in adipose cells that have been isolated and separated into groups according to their diameter from a single sample of adipose tissue containing a heterogeneous population of cells. After incorporation of radioactive substrate, a section of adipose tissue is fixed in osmium tetroxide and the fixed cells isolated and separated into specific diameter ranges using a series of nylon screens. The separated cells are weighed, decolorized with hydrogen peroxide, and the radioactivity is determined in the cells from each diameter range. With this method, true comparisons can be made between adipose cell size and lipogenic activity of isolated cells of known diameter which have been subjected to various nutritional or hormonal treatments. Results with sheep adipose tissue show that large adipose cells are considerably more active in the synthesis of lipid than small cells from the same sample of adipose tissue.