Figure 2.

Adipocytes cells and their main morphological and cellular activity differences. Adipocytes are divided into four cell types that have different morphological and functional characteristics: the white, pink, beige and brown adipocytes. The white adipocyte is described as a cell with great energy storage ability, high pro-inflammatory profile, capable of producing several adipokines related to inflammation modulation. The pink adipocyte is described as a cell with a great potential for energy storage as well. However, this cell has a higher metabolic activity compared to white adipocytes, but low ability to regulate inflammation, compared to white adipocytes. Unlike white adipocytes, the brown adipocyte acts to maintain body temperature due to its high amount of mitochondria enriched with UCP1 protein. Brown adipocytes have small fat droplets spread throughout the cell and have a high metabolic activity. Between the two extremes of the white adipocyte to the brown, there is the beige adipocyte. The beige adipocyte has the ability to produce heat due to the high number of mitochondria, with the highest metabolic activity among all four types of adipocytes. Overall, the figure shows the morphological difference between the adipocytes cells as well as indicate the capacity to modulate inflammation and the metabolic activity of adipocytes.