1. Introduction
Adipose tissue is an endocrine organ, that acts as an energy triglycerides reservoir, and in case of necessity, it mobilizes energy by releasing fatty acids. This tissue is managed by endocrine, metabolic responses, and cellular composition through the potentially toxic buildup of lipids and their mobilization to limit biotoxicity due to lipid excess in peripheral organs [
1,
2]. Adipose tissue plays a crucial role in buffering chronic overnutrition by storing excess energy in the form of lipids. However, if this energy storage capacity is exceeded, it can result in pathological accumulation of lipids in other organs. There are three main types of adipose tissues, including subcutaneous and visceral white anabolic white (WAT), catabolic brown adipose tissue (BAT), and mixed adipose tissue. White adipose tissue mainly controls energy excesses by promoting hypertrophy or hyperplasia, which increases its energy-buffering ability. To achieve this, the tissue uses committed progenitors. On the other hand, brown adipose tissue is responsible for energy dissipation by producing heat and possesses multilocular fat cells with mitochondria, which promote the oxidation of lipids. WAT has been historically defined by anatomical location and the presence of parenchymal cells containing a single large lipid droplet. Researchers have debated the high adipocyte plasticity. [
3].
It is crucial to conduct a deep study of all the cellular types that make up the adipose tissue, as well as the external factors that influence their development and adaptability. Adipose tissue is highly heterogeneous, with most cells exhibiting significant multipotency. The tissue primarily consists of mature adipocytes, in addition to a mixture of small mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and pre-adipocytes, endothelial cells, macrophages, and T regulatory cells. In particular,
pre-adipocytes, which reached our attention
, can proliferate and differentiate into mature adipocytes, providing the adipose tissue with a constant and very high functional adaptability. (
Figure 1) [
3,
4]. The process of adipose tissue formation is well-regulated and occurs in different stages, with varying cell organization and differentiation pathways. Several studies have shown that different adipose tissue depots form at different times and possess unique molecular characteristics, indicating regional differences between them. Additionally, research into stem cell adipose biology has focused on understanding the molecular characteristics and differentiation potential of progenitor cells within this tissue [
5,
6,
7,
8,
9]. Stem cells reside in specialized locations known as stem cell niches, where they remain dormant until adjacent cells or external signals from the microenvironment stimulate them to proliferate and differentiate. Adipogenesis is closely linked to other developmental processes, with angiogenesis being the most important among them. [
10,
11,
12,
13] Moreover, this process directly influences pre-adipocyte proliferation and differentiation, reducing in this way the vascularization during obesity, thus inducing apoptosis in dysfunctional adipocytes [
14,
15,
16].
Furthermore, adipose tissue stromal components provide structural support and biochemical signals, maintaining tissue functionality. Extracellular matrix (ECM) components impact mesenchymal lineage fate, proliferation, and cell differentiation, while mesenchymal progenitors play an essential role in matrix remodeling. [
17,
18,
19]. Adipocyte maturation upregulates collagen IV expression and several laminin complexes, while it reduces fibronectin expression during adipocyte differentiation [
20,
21,
22]. Another regulation of adipogenesis regarding the so-called adipocytokines, this secreted class of molecules exerts a significant effect on every adjacent cell.
For these reasons, adipose tissue could be considered not only a simple energy storage tissue system but also an important endocrine and immune organ, even if it is not yet fully characterized.
As debated above, the adipocyte differentiation process mainly comprises two stages, the “determination phase” and then the “terminal differentiation phase”. [
28,
29,
30,
31,
32]
During the beginning phase of adipogenesis, C/EBP-β and C/EBP-δ factors are identified as crucial transcriptional factors. These factors accumulate, causing adipose cells to re-enter the cell cycle and promoting the transition from active G1 to S phase. Specifically, when
C/EBP-β is hyperphosphorylated and then activated by glycogen synthase kinase-3 B and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), it works together with C/EBP-δ to stimulate the expression of
PPARγ and
C/EBP-α. Hence, both C/EBP-β and C/EBP-δ play a vital role in regulating the transcription of genes that are critical for adipocyte differentiation. [
33,
34]. Therefore, both factors promote their expressions, but meanwhile, they can promote many other genes whose expression could induce specific adipocyte commitment or fate [
35,
36]
PPARγ represents an important nuclear receptor and it is considered a crucial transcription factor that drives brown or white adipocyte differentiation. Two PPARγ isoforms have been described: PPARγ1 which is constitutively expressed, and its expression is characteristic of fat tissues, and PPARγ2, regulated by the previous one, which regulates mainly adipocyte differentiation [
37,
38]. Adipocyte commitment results from the equilibrium between these factors, due to the dual face of these factors, which could be considered pro- and anti-adipogenicity transcription factors.
The
Kruppel-like factors (KLFs), instead, of C2H2 a zinc-finger factor, regulates adipose tissue apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation. It described a lot of different isoforms with different biological and molecular roles, such as KLF15 (which promotes GLUT-4 expression), KLF5 (induced by C/EBP-β and C/EBP-δ in the early adipocyte maturation), KLF9 (key pro-adipogenicity transcription factor through the middle adipogenesis stage), KLF2 and KLF7 (anti-adipogenicity factors, and in particular KLF2 represses the Pparg2 promoter) [
39,
40,
41].
Many other groups studied other transcription factors, that could act specifically on the repression of adipogenesis, such as the GATA-binding family or forehead families
Forkhead Box O1 and A2 (FOXO1 and FOXA2). So, we could conclude that adipogenesis resulted from positive or negative stimuli and regulation factors, many of which are hormones, cytokines, growth factors, and some pharmacological compounds. [
42,
43,
44,
45,
46]. (
Figure 2). To note, within adipose tissue heterogeneity, which is represented by a dynamic mixture of cellular and non-cellular elements, including progenitors, resident/recruited immune cells, fibroblasts, blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, peripheral nerves, and extracellular matrix (ECM), pre-adipocytes play a crucial role in adipose tissue plasticity. In this context, many studies demonstrated that miRNA expression in pre-adipocytes is altered during adipose tissue development and in obesity, therefore a better understanding of miRNAs' role in the proliferation and differentiation of adipocytes during fat cell development could provide new therapeutic strategies in regenerative medicine. The miRNAs are one of the most important biology and medicine scientific discoveries. miRNAs consist of a short class of RNA molecules, long about 20 nucleotides, endogenous, single-stranded, and non-coding RNA. They are involved in the negative post-transcription gene expression pairing of some specific mRNAs 3'UTR. The miRNA mediates RNA degradation or its translational repression [
23]. Scientific evidence showed that miRNAs play a crucial role in the regulation of several biological behaviors, such as embryonic maturity, cell proliferation, metabolic homeostasis, and programmed cell death [
24]. Nowadays, about 1,000 different genes coding for miRNAs have been recognized [
25]. The interaction involves the formation of a double-stranded assembly between the miRNA '' seed and the mRNA “target” [
26,
27].
In recent literature, Michael et al. 2009 and Kim et al. 2010 have described the relationship between miRNAs and the regulation of early adipocyte differentiation. In particular, they studied how
miR-27b overexpression correlates with adipogenesis, and both groups found that its abundance during human adipocyte differentiation decreases the
PPARδ and C/EBPα induction. Therefore, the
miR-27 gene family is potentially an important class of adipogenic-sis-negative regulators, useful as an anti-adipogenic factor. Then, another miRNA, the
miR-519d, was studied by Martinelli et al. 2010 and is crucial in adipocyte development. This specific miRNA suppresses in a dose-dependently way the translation of
PPARα protein, increasing lipid accumulation during preadipocyte differentiation. Moreover, Jordan et al. described the implication of
miR-138 expression in the adipogenicity differentiation. In particular,
miR-138 is downregulated during the adipogenicity differentiation of human adipose tissue-derived, while its overexpression in mesenchymal stem cells reduces lipid droplets accumulation [
47]. In addition, Sun et al. 2009 highlighted the
miR-31 role in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). When
miR-31 was upregulated, adipogenic differentiation of MSCs was repressed, regulating
C/EBPα expression. In addition, Tang et al. 2009 reported that during the differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), the expression of
miR-31 and
miR-326 were significantly down-regulated. Furthermore, Esau et al. 2004 showed that
miR-143 levels increased in differentiating adipocytes, and its ablation inhibits adipocyte differentiation, acting on the MAPK signaling pathway, even if in the terminal differentiation step [
33]. Moreover, ERK5, which is involved in adipocyte differentiation, represents a target gene of miR-143, and Oskowitz et al. 2008 observed that relative overexpression promoted adipogenicity differentiation. Instead, Ling et al. 2011 studied the
miR-375, which suppresses the phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2 and consequently promotes adipocyte differentiation [
48]. Therefore, miRNA inhibitors toward MAPK could be used as a novel approach to reduce adipocyte differentiation and decrease lipid accumulation. In addition, the
miR-143 affects negatively glucose homeostasis through the activation of the Akt pathway and specifically downregulates the oxysterol-binding- protein-related protein 8 (ORP8) [
49]. Yi et al. 2011 described how the miR-143 could enhance adipogenesis with pleiotrophin (PTN) silencing, resulting in a negative adipogenesis differentiation through PTN/PI3K/AKT pathway. Despite the
miR-375 modulates, by targeting PDK, the glucose-mediated stimulatory effect on insulin gene expression, inactivates the Akt pathway thanks to phosphatidyl-inositides generated by PI3K [
50]. It described other miRNAs, including miR-210, miR-148a, miR-194, and miR-322, that induce adipogenesis, repressing Wingless-type MMTV integration site family members (Wnt) signaling. Other miRNAs, as
miR-344,
miR-27, and
miR-181, inhibit adipogenesis secreting glycoproteins through their Frizzled (Fz) receptors and low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP) co-receptors. As described in the literature, Wnt signaling blocks adipocyte differentiation inhibiting PPARγ and CEBPα expression [
51,
52]. Furthermore, the relationship between lipid metabolism and miRNA modulation has been highlighted in several papers. For instance,
miR-210 overexpression induces hypertrophy and lipid droplet formation in the fat cell and its inhibition promotes the adipogenesis block [
53].
miR-103 is reported to be upregulated during differentiation of human pre-adipocytes, and its overexpression in the presence of adipogenic stimuli increases triglyceride accumulation and adipogenic gene expression [
54,
55,
56,
57,
58]. In mature adipocytes, long terminal differentiation, the upregulation or downregulation of specific miRNAs, such as
miR-221,
miR-125b,
miR-34a, and
miR-100, have different effects. In particular, miR-34a, positively upregulated during adipogenesis, is associated with BMI increasing [
59]. Despite miR-448 suppressing adipocyte differentiation. Kruppel-like factor 5 (KLF5) contains a selective miR-448 binding site. Overexpression of miR-448 in pre-adipocytes suppresses KLF5, triglyceride accumulation, and adipogenic gene expression [
60]. Moreover,
miR-15a inhibition reduces preadipocyte size while promoting adipocyte proliferation. In preadipocytes, miR-15a has been shown to target DLK1 at mRNA and protein level [
61]. Furthermore, miR-222 and miR-221 are decreased during adipogenesis but upregulated in obese adipocytes, contrary, miR-185 was upregulated in mature adipocytes while downregulated in obese men. In summary, there is a strong influence of the miRnoma on the potential differentiation and several miRNAs have been identified which can accelerate or inhibit adipocytes turnover.