Distinction of white, beige and brown adipocytes derived from mesenchymal stem cells

Table 1 Differences amongst the three types of adipocytes

	Brown	White	Beige (Brown-like)
Location	Interscapular, perirenal, axillary, paravertebral	Inguinal (sWAT), mesenteric, retroperitoneal, perigonadal, omental (vWAT)	Within inguinal WAT, other sWAT?
Morphology	Multilocular/small lipid droplets	Unilocular/large lipid droplets	Unilocular large/multiple small lipi droplets
Function	Heat production	Storage of energy as triglycerides	Adaptive thermogenesis
Mitochondria	(+++)	(+)	Upon stimulation (++)
Iron content	Abundant	Low	Upon stimulation (Abundant)
Correlation with insulin resistance	Negative	Positive	Negative
UCP1	(+++)	Nearly undetectable	Upon stimulation (++)
Vascularization/Capillaries	Abundant	Low	Cold stimulation led to increase of angiogenesis in sWAT[66]
α-, β-Adrenergic receptors	β3 (+++)	β3 (++), α2 (+)	β3/α2?
Obesity	Negative effect	Positive effect	Negative effect
Enriched markers	UCP1, Eva1, Pdk4, Ebf3, Hspb7[2,9]	Ang, Resistin[13] LPL, G3PDH[14]	Tmem26, Tbx1[2], Cited1[9], Shox2[67]
Activators	Cold, thyroid hormone, thiazolidinediones, FGF21, Bmp7, Bmp8b, natriuretic peptide	HFD	Cold, thiazolidinediones, natriuretic peptide, FGF21, irisin, catecholamines, β-adrenergic receptor agonists

WAT: White adipose tissue; vWAT: Visceral WAT; sWAT: Subcutaneous WAT; UCP1: Uncoupling protein 1; FGF21: Fibroblast growth factor-21; HFD: High fat diet.