In Part I, I laid out some terminology that we'll use in the discussion of how we get fat. In this installment, I'm mostly going to list the various means by which fat tissue can expand, emphasis on the word can. Because as future installments will lay out, while some of these mechanisms are plausible, some of these mechanisms contribute very little if at all to the fattening process.
So what mechanisms might be involved in the expansion of fat tissue? It is not controversial that fat tissue expands by two means:
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So what mechanisms might be involved in the expansion of fat tissue? It is not controversial that fat tissue expands by two means:
- Adipocytogenesis: The growth of new fat cells, increased fat cell number
- Adipocyte growth: Increased size of adipocytes