ArticleNature cell biology2014
Visceral and subcutaneous fat have different origins and evidence supports a mesothelial source.
Article in Nature cell biology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 308 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
308 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 511 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Sex Differences in Subcutaneous and Visceral Abdominal Fat in Children.Nutrition reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Population-specific and trans-ancestry genome-wide analyses identify distinct and shared genetic risk loci for coronary artery disease.Nature genetics · 2020Pooled it
- mHealth-Based Diabetes Prevention Program for Chinese Mothers With Abdominal Obesity: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Surface protein profiling reveals depot-specific features of subcutaneous and visceral adipose progenitor cells.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2026Article
- Review
- Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals depot-specific characteristics of adipose progenitor cells in ducks.Poultry science · 2026Article
- Molecular and Cellular Analysis of Lipogems-Processed Lipoaspirates for Evaluating the Efficacy of Treatments in Regenerative Medicine.Stem cell reviews and reports · 2026Article
- Is All Fat Created Equal? A Comparative Study of Chondrogenesis Potential of Peri-Ovarian Adipose Tissues in Dogs.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Transcriptomic Profiling of Adipose Tissues in Sujiang Pigs Reveals Candidate Genes Associated with Tissue-Specific Fat Deposition.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- PW1Stem cell research & therapy · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Perirenal adipose tissue imaging characteristics as predictors of systemic inflammatory response syndrome following percutaneous nephrolithotomy.World journal of urology · 2026Article
- Analyzing the transcriptomic diversity in isolated mature adipocytes from the major fat depots in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Perirenal Fat Thickness Is Associated With Disturbed Circadian Blood Pressure Rhythm in Essential Hypertension.Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2026Article
- Distinct precursor landscape of subcutaneous and visceral fat in development and aging.Cell reports · 2026Review
- Adipose Progenitor Cells in Thermogenesis and Metabolic Regulation.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Review
- Lipedema as a disorder of adipose tissue heterogeneity: insights from single-cell and spatial transcriptomics.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Sex-specific body fat distribution predicts cardiovascular ageing.European heart journal · 2025Article
248 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Fuelled by the obesity epidemic, there is considerable interest in the developmental origins of white adipose tissue (WAT) and the stem and progenitor cells from which it arises. Whereas increased visceral fat mass is associated with metabolic dysfunction, increased subcutaneous WAT is protective. There are six visceral fat depots: perirenal, gonadal, epicardial, retroperitoneal, omental and mesenteric, and it is a subject of much debate whether these have a common developmental origin and whether this differs from that for subcutaneous WAT. Here we show that all six visceral WAT depots receive a significant contribution from cells expressing Wt1 late in gestation. Conversely, no subcutaneous WAT or brown adipose tissue arises from Wt1-expressing cells. Postnatally, a subset of visceral WAT continues to arise from Wt1-expressing cells, consistent with the finding that Wt1 marks a proportion of cell populations enriched in WAT progenitors. We show that all visceral fat depots have a mesothelial layer like the visceral organs with which they are associated, and provide several lines of evidence that Wt1-expressing mesothelium can produce adipocytes. These results reveal a major ontogenetic difference between visceral and subcutaneous WAT, and pinpoint the lateral plate mesoderm as a major source of visceral WAT. They also support the notion that visceral WAT progenitors are heterogeneous, and suggest that mesothelium is a source of adipocytes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.