Embryonic stem cell-derived adipogenesis

Key events leading to terminal differentiation of preadipocytes into adipoc ytes have been characterized in the recent years. However, master genes tha t commit progression from multipotent mesenchymal stem cell to the adipobla st stage of development have not yet been identified. The use of embryonic stem (ES) cells as a route to study early events in adipogenesis and to cha racterize factors involved in the decision of stem cells to follow the adip ogenic pathway is described in this paper. The capacity of lif(-/-) and lif r(-/-) ES cells to undergo adipocyte differentiation is reported as an appl ication of mutant ES cells to study gene function during the development of adipose cells. Copyright (C) 1999 S. Karger AG, Basel.