Arieh Moussaieff Ph.D. Reut Bruck, Natalya Kogan, Christian Dani (iBV, CNR, France), Assaf Rudich (Ben Gurion University)

Obesity and metabolic diseases constitute a worldwide pandemic with more than 1.9 billion adults overweight in 2014, and vast resources are being spent on this phenomenon. Using human tissues and primary fat cells, as well as iPSC-derived fat cells, we are studying the metabolic changes during the differentiation of adipocytes. Our data strongly suggests that differential accumulation of specific lipids is involved in different stages of adipogenesis.
We are thus studying the lipid network of differentiating adipocytes, including endocannabinoids, their precursors and derivatives.

Key words: Metabolomics; adipocytes; induced pluripotent stem cells; adipocyte differentiation; white fat cells; brown fat cells