INFLUENCE OF ANDROGENICITY ON ADIPOCYTES AND PRECURSOR CELLS IN FEMALE RATS

We examined the effects of overexposure of testosterone (T) on fat cel l morphology and adipocyte precursor pools in inguinal and retroperito neal fat depots of ovariectomized rats, In both tissues peripubertal T decreased weights without affecting adipocyte mean cell size or the s ize distribution profiles, but adipocyte number was decreased by 65% i n the inguinal and by 38% in the retroperitoneal depots, Immunofluores cent flow cytometry utilizing a specific antibody to rat adipose tissu e lipoprotein lipase was used to quantify regional precursor cell popu lations, T sharply reduced the percentages of differentiated and undif ferentiated preadipocytes in the inguinal depot, from 43.2 +/- 5.3 to 23.5 +/- 2.1% and from 57.7 +/- 4.0 to 43.6 +/- 5.3%, respectively, wi th a concomitant increase in fibroblasts from 1.6 to 32.9%, On the oth er hand, T had no effect on retroperitoneal preadipocyte pools, Perina tal androgenization exacerbated the decline in the inguinal weight (1. 4 +/- 0.1 vs. 2.2 +/- 0.1g) but otherwise did not influence the action s of peripubertal T. Androgens may thus act in a tissue-specific manne r to regulate fat cell growth potential in the femoral region in the f emale.