人类营养百科（英文版） 电子书

The role of white adipose tissue (WAT) in storing and releasing lipids for oxidation by skeletal muscle and other tissues became so firmly established decades ago that a persistent lack of interest hindered the study of the extraordinarily dynamic behavior of adipocytes. However, disentangling the neuroendocrine systems, which regulate energy homeostasis and adiposity has jumped to a first-priority challenge, with the recognition of obesity as one of the major public health problems. Strictly speaking, obesity is not defined as an excess of body weight but as an increased adipose tissue accretion, to the extent that health may be adversely affected. Therefore, in the last decades, adipose tissue has become the research focus of biomedical scientists for epidemiological, pathophysiological, and molecular reasons. Although the primary role of adipocytes is to store triglycerides during periods of caloric excess and to mobilize this reserve when expenditure exceeds intake, it is now widely recognized that adipose tissue lies at the heart of a complex network participating in the regulation of a variety of quite diverse biological functions