Diet-induced adipocyte number increase in adult rats: a new model of obesity.

Adult rats of various strains became obese when they were fed a highly palatable diet for several months. Analysis of their adipose tissue morphology revealed increases in both adipocyte size and number in most depots. Reintroduction of an ordinary chow diet to such animals precipitated a period of weight loss during which only mean adipocyte size returned to normal. Adipocyte number remained at the elevated level achieved during the period of weight gain. Thus, transient dietary obesity in rats results in a persistent obesity of a purely hyperplastic, nonhypertrophic form. Furthermore, the persistence of the cell number increase suggests that it is the result of proliferation or differentiation rather than of only an increase in the lipid content of a pool of very small and normally undetected adipocytes. An analysis of adipose tissue morphology changes during the course of diet-induced weight gain suggests that the achievement of some specific mean adipocyte size triggers the events that culminate in adipocyte number increase. What mechanisms may link adipocyte size to the formation of new adipocytes remains unknown.