We have developed strategies to assemble artificial human adipocyte (fat) tissue that can be stimulated with fatty acids to mimic exposure to a high-fat diet. This treatment produces obese properties in the fat tissue including lipid droplet hypertrophy, functional insulin resistance and increased basal lipolysis. Using these artificial fat tissues, we are exploring how fat tissue adapts to chronic high-fat exposure with the goal of identifying interventions to prevent the metabolic dysfunction observed in people with obesity.

Relevant publications

• A three-dimensional human adipocyte model of fatty acid-induced obesity. Pieters VM, Rjaibi ST, Singh K, Li NT, Khan ST, Nunes SS, Dal Cin A, Gilbert PM, McGuigan AP. Biofabrication. 2022 Aug 19;14(4). doi: 10.1088/1758-5090/ac84b1.