On University of Illinois’s Grainger College of Engineering Week: To understand obesity, we need to look into our cells.
Cecilia Leal, professor of materials science and engineering, explores.
Cecilia Leal has been a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering since 2012. Her lab investigates lipids, soft, and often living materials for which she has received numerous awards such as the 2016 NIH Director’s New Innovator and NSF CAREER Awards. Cecilia is often in the list of excellent teachers ranked by her students and received the 2022 College Award for Sustained Excellence in Community Engagement.
How Fat Cells Get Smarter
The Leal lab investigates how the ultrastructure of lipids and membranes in living systems affects their function. A 2024 study in collaboration with the Anakk research group found that fat cells do more than just grow during obesity – they undergo a sophisticated internal transformation. While it’s long been assumed that larger fat cells signal worsening obesity, this research shows that the way fat is stored inside the cell is just as important. Fat cells contain lipid droplets or LDs, which store fat molecules called triacylglycerols or TAGs. When mice were fed high-fat, high-sugar diets, these TAGs didn’t simply accumulate – they reorganized into tightly packed crystalline β′ and β polymorph structures. This contrasts with the more fluid, loosely packed TAGs found in mice on normal diets. Using advanced techniques like X-ray diffraction, solid-state NMR, and cryo-electron microscopy, the groups found that this molecular-level restructuring makes both the LDs and the surrounding adipose tissue significantly stiffer. These changes were confirmed through atomic force microscopy and micropipette aspiration. Importantly, this structural remodeling may serve as a protective role. By tightly packing saturated TAGs, fat cells can store more energy efficiently and delay the spillover of excess fat into other organs – a process known as lipotoxicity, which is linked to metabolic diseases like diabetes. This study challenges the idea that fat cell size alone defines obesity risk. In short, fat cells aren’t just passive storage units – they actively adapt to caloric overload in ways that reshape our knowledge of obesity. Understanding fat packing at this level could change how we think about obesity and how we treat it.
Read More:
[ACS Publications] – Diet-Induced Obesity Modulates Close-Packing of Triacylglycerols in Lipid Droplets of Adipose Tissue
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