LIPOBLAST

LIPOBLAST (from Greek lipos-fat and blastos-germ) (syn. steatoblast), a term used by some researchers, for example Borst, with respect to young fat cells that are still in that period of development when a large cell of round or polyhedral form contains many small droplets of fat in its protoplasm and has a nucleus located in the center of the cell [see separate table, vol. X (pp. 367-368), figs. a, b]. Subsequently, in such L., there occurs a gradual merging of the small fat droplets into one large fat droplet, which pushes the nucleus to the periphery of the cell; thus the lipoblast transforms into a mature fat cell. The source of development of L. are ordinary cells of embryonic mesenchyme, as well as fibroblasts, which can transform into L. and subsequently into fat cells provided that fat droplets appear in their protoplasm and their body rounds up. The possibility of the formation of lipoblasts from the nucleus-containing remnant of protoplasm of an old fat cell is also admitted.