Highly selective in vivo labeling of subcutaneous white adipocyte precursors with Prx1-Cre.

The origins of individual fat depots are not well understood, and thus, the availability of tools useful for studying depot-specific adipose tissue development and function is limited. Cre drivers that selectively target only brown adipocyte, subcutaneous white adipocyte, or visceral white adipocyte precursors would have significant value because they could be used to selectively study individual depots without impacting the adipocyte precursors or intrinsic metabolic properties of the other depots. Here, we show that the majority of the precursor and mature subcutaneous white adipocytes in adult C57Bl/6 mice are labeled by Prx1-Cre. In sharp contrast, few to no brown adipocytes or visceral white adipocytes are marked by Prx1-Cre. This suggests that Prx1-Cre-mediated recombination may be useful for making depot-restricted genetic manipulations in subcutaneous white adipocyte precursor cells, particularly when targeting genes with fat-specific functions. Prx1-Cre targets subcutaneous white adipocyte precursor cells Prx1-Cre labels subcutaneous white adipocytes Prx1-Cre may be useful to manipulate gene expression in subcutaneous WAT The ability to direct Cre recombinase activity to specific fat depots, such as to the subcutaneous or visceral adipocytes, could be useful in determining depot-specific roles in metabolism and the mechanisms of body fat distribution. In this issue, Guertin and colleagues show that most subcutaneous white adipocyte precursors and mature adipocytes, but few brown or visceral white adipocytes, are targeted by Prx1-Cre.

个体脂肪储存库的起源尚未得到充分了解，因此，可用于研究特定储存库的脂肪组织发育和功能的工具很有限。仅选择性靶向棕色脂肪细胞、皮下白色脂肪细胞或内脏白色脂肪细胞前体的Cre驱动因子将具有重要价值，因为它们可用于选择性研究个体储存库，而不影响其他储存库的脂肪细胞前体或内在代谢特性。在此，我们表明成年C57Bl/6小鼠中大多数前体和成熟的皮下白色脂肪细胞可被Prx1 - Cre标记。与之形成鲜明对比的是，Prx1 - Cre几乎没有标记棕色脂肪细胞或内脏白色脂肪细胞。这表明Prx1 - Cre介导的重组可能有助于对皮下白色脂肪细胞前体细胞进行储存库受限的基因操作，特别是在靶向具有脂肪特异性功能的基因时。 Prx1 - Cre靶向皮下白色脂肪细胞前体细胞 Prx1 - Cre标记皮下白色脂肪细胞 Prx1 - Cre可能有助于操纵皮下白色脂肪组织中的基因表达 将Cre重组酶活性导向特定脂肪储存库（如皮下或内脏脂肪细胞）的能力，可能有助于确定储存库在代谢中的特定作用以及体脂分布的机制。在本期中，Guertin及其同事表明，大多数皮下白色脂肪细胞前体和成熟脂肪细胞可被Prx1 - Cre靶向，但很少有棕色或内脏白色脂肪细胞被靶向。