Ormond MacDougald, Ph.D., John A. Faulkner Collegiate Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology, Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School

This honey cone-looking array is a field of fat cells (also called adipose tissue). The outer membrane of the fat cells is labeled in green. The greyish homogeneous region inside each cell is a single globule of stored fat. The reddish lines seen occasionally between fat cells are blood vessels. In fact, this connection between fat cells and the vasculature is essential for the further growth of the adipose mass. The molecular signaling that characterizes this association between blood vessels and fat cells might yield important clues to how adipose tissues expand with obesity.

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