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Once fat cells are formed, can you ever get rid of them?
The number of fat cells ∈a person’s body seems to be able to change ∈ only one direction: up. Fat cell number increases through childhood and adolescence and generally stabilizes ∈ adulthood.
But this doesn’t mean that fat cells, or adipocytes, are stagnant. The size of individual fat cells is remarkably variable, expanding and contracting with weight gain or weight loss. And as with most cell types ∈ the body, adipocytes die eventually. “Usually when old ones die, they are replaced by new fat cells,” said Dr. Michael Jensen, an endocrinologist and obesity researcher at the Mayo Clinic. Cell death and production appear to be tightly coupled, so although about 10 percent of adipocytes die each year, they’re replaced at the same rate.
Even among bariatric surgery patients, who can lose massive amounts of weight, the number of fat cells tends to remain the same, although the cells shrink ∈ size, studies show. Liposuction reduces the number of fat cells ∈a person’s body, but studies show the weight lost is typically regained within a year. It isn’t known whether this regain occurs through the production of new fat cells or expansion of existing ones.
People who are obese tend to have more fat cells than those who are not, and several studies have found an increase ∈ fat cell number with weight regain following weight loss. The fact that fat cell number can be increased but not decreased most likely contributes to the body’s drive to regain weight after weight loss, said Dr. Kirsty L. Spalding, a cell biologist at the Karolinska Institute ∈Sweden and the lead author of a 2008 study showing that fat cells die and are replaced. Beyond their role ∈ storing fat, adipocytes secrete proteins and hormones that affect energy metabolism.
(Alice Callahan. https://well.blogs.nytimes.com, 17.02.2017. Adaptado.)
In the excerpt from the second paragraph “adipocytes die eventually”, the word ∈ bold means
