Are adipocytes and ROS villains, or are they protagonists in the drama of life? The murburn perspective

Several questions remain unanswered regarding the roles and interactive dynamics of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipids/adipocytes. ROS have been conventionally associated with deleterious effects in biological systems, especially correlated with metabolic disorders exemplified by diabetes, obesity, cancer, atherogenesis, etc. Adipocytes, originally perceived as mere lipid-storing cells, were also associated with such metabolic disorders. In later times, adipose tissue was shown to have several favorable metabolic and physiological functions. Similarly, ROS were also acknowledged with favorable roles in cellular signaling. Very recently, ROS have been shown to be indispensable protagonists of key life-sustaining routines such as oxidative phosphorylation, thermogenesis and xenobiotics’ metabolism. In the light of these developments, herein, we attempt to address why different research groups derive data that project/infer contrasting correlations of ROS and lipids with good health. We advocate that rather than seeing ROS and fat deposition as deleterious to health, the modality of their generation, loci of presence and the relative amounts/distribution in milieu are the crucial factors that determine their interactions/roles (and thereby, the resulting physiology!) in miscellaneous microenvironments.