Critical Focus | Can We Understand Obesity? Fat Chance
THE MICROSCOPE
2018, Volume 66:1, pp. 35–45
DOI
https://doi.org/10.59082/LLIR8653
AUTHOR
Brian J. Ford
EXCERPT
Curious cells. Those I am studying are human. Yet they have the appearance of a plant: they are large, rounded, and seem mostly to consist of empty space. To a microscopist’s eye, this looks at first glance like medulla from the core of a plant stem. It is a trick question. This is no botanical section, for these cells are fat cells, adipocytes, the empty space being lipid in life; the solvents used to prepare the tissue for staining and mounting dissolve away the fat, leaving the great void in each cell.
