City University of Hong Kong
GE1341 Life and Health: Innovative Essay
Topic: Why Do we need to store fat in adipose tissue? Why people become obese?
Name: Wong Ming Yan Cannis SID: 54404835

Introduction: In this piece of innovative essay, I am going to have a brief introduction on the structure of adipose tissue, including white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT): an indispensable part of our body with the function of energy storage and as an endocrine gland. After introducing the functions of adipose tissue, I will focus on topic: about the function of adipose tissue as a place for storage of fat. People become obese is partly due to adiponectin and leptin, the two hormones affecting adipose tissue and resulting in obesity. …show more content…
There are two kinds of adipose tissue cells namely white adipose tissue and brown adipose tissue (also name as brown adipocytes). White adipose tissue is most prevalent in our body, which have primary functions of accumulating free fatty acid for energy storage for the times of starvation or exertion, provides insulation and forms protective pads between organs. When muscles cells or other tissues need to consume energy stored in adipose tissue, epinephrine, norepinephrine, glucagon and adrenocorticotropin bind to adipose tissue cells and trigger the hydrolysis of triacylglycerol, causing the release of fatty acids and glycerol (Lipolysis). On the other hand, the brown adipocytes utilize available energy to generate heat to keep our body at a constant temperature. Brown adipocytes are only found in a few places in our body and it is rich in mitochondriathat contain a unique protein called uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) that regulate the synthesis of cellular …show more content…
There have been over fifty kinds of adipolins been identified, but adiponectin and leptin worth our further discussion.

Hormonal function of Adipose Tissue in Causing of Obesity As the level of plasma adiponectin concentration fall with increasing obesity, with the effect more significant in men than in women, this is correlated to insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. Insulin resistance means glucose builds up in the blood instead of being transfer to glycogen to store in liver or being absorbed by the cells, will easily lead to type 2 diabetes.

For leptin, which is the first adipocyte hormone identified, can influence food intake through a direct effect on the hypothalamus. Research proved that in human and rodents, plasma leptin concentrations are highly correlated with BMI.For most obese individuals, they have high leptin concentrations which facilitates the secretion of extra adipose tissue. The increasing leptin makes the target cells become resistant to actions. The increase concentration of leptin in the body is accompanied by an increase expression of SOSC-3