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Adipose tissue is a connective tissue, but it’s also an interactive organ in your endocrine system. That’s right, we’re talking about body fat. Adipose tissue communicates through hormone signals with other organs throughout your body, as well as with your central nervous system, to regulate your metabolism.

Overview

What is adipose tissue?

Adipose tissue, otherwise known as body fat, is a connective tissue that extends throughout your body. It’s found under your skin (subcutaneous fat), between your internal organs (visceral fat) and even in the inner cavities of bones (bone marrow adipose tissue).

Body fat is primarily known for storing and releasing energy and providing insulation. However, scientists now recognize that it’s also an active organ in your endocrine system. Adipose tissue contains nerve cells and blood vessels and communicates through hormone signals with other organs throughout your body. It has several important functions in regulating whole-body health. But these can malfunction if you have too much or too little of it.

Function

What is the function of adipose tissue?

Body fat serves many important functions, including:

  • Energy storage and release.
  • Insulation from cold and heat.
  • Cushioning around soft organs.
  • Regulating hunger and satiety.
  • Maintaining energy balance.
  • Regulating glucose and cholesterol.
  • Maintaining insulin sensitivity.
  • Generating thermogenic heat.
  • Contributing to immunity.
  • Metabolizing sex hormones.

How does adipose tissue collaborate with other organs?

By secreting some hormones and responding to others, adipose tissue communicates with other organs throughout your body, as well as with your central nervous system. It regulates energy supply and demand through hunger and satiety (feeling full) signals. It responds to insulin by converting excess blood sugar to lipids and storing them away for future use. Sex hormones partly determine where fat is deposited in your body. Adipose tissue also has its own active immune cells, which respond to certain stimuli by clearing out dead fat cells or producing an inflammatory response. Metabolic diseases result from a breakdown in these functions.

Anatomy

Where is adipose tissue located?

Adipose tissue is found throughout your body. The primary depots are:

  • Subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). This is the fat that lives between your skin and muscles.
  • Visceral adipose tissue (VAT). This is the fat that surrounds the organs in your abdominal cavity.

Other locations include:

  • In bone marrow.
  • In breast tissue.
  • Between muscles.
  • Around your heart.
  • In your eye sockets.
  • In the palms of your hands and soles of your feet.

A particular kind of adipose tissue, the brown kind, is mostly present in infancy and diminishes with age. It’s found in your upper back, above your clavicles and around vertebrae.

Conditions and Disorders

Is it healthy to have adipose tissue?

Adipose tissue is crucial for health. However, having too much — or too little — can cause its regulatory systems to malfunction. Healthy levels vary by age and sex, ranging between 10% and 35%. In the case of obesity, the body runs out of tissue to store lipids in, so the existing fat cells have to grow. Enlarged fat cells are associated with chronic inflammation and with a variety of metabolic disorders that follow. Ironically, a lack of overall fat tissue can cause the same effects because, again, the body doesn’t have enough existing tissue to store lipids in.

What are the common conditions and disorders that affect this body system?

Dysfunctional adipose tissue can lead to various metabolic disorders, including:

  • Insulin resistance, resulting in diabetes.
  • Dysfunctional hunger and satiety signals, resulting in obesity.
  • Hypertension and heart problems.
  • Fat storage in the organs and fatty liver disease.

How are adipose tissue disorders treated?

Besides genetic factors, most disorders of the adipose tissue result from malnutrition, which can mean either undernutrition or overnutrition. Undernutrition is treated with supplemental nutrition or “refeeding.” Overnutrition is treated first with diet and exercise. For more advanced obesity (class III), medication or surgery may be an option. Obesity is associated with various metabolic disorders, but not all people with extra body fat have metabolic issues. Specific complications, such as insulin resistance, may require direct treatment.