Kirsty Spalding's Group
Our lab is primarily interested in investigating the origin and turnover of adipocytes, their progenitor cells and lipid stores in lean and obese individuals.
Obesity is increasing in an epidemic manner in most countries and constitutes a public health problem by enhancing the risk for diseases such as diabetes, fatty liver disease and atherosclerosis. Together these diseases form a cluster referred to as the metabolic syndrome.
An important factor behind obesity complications is the fat cell (adipocyte). Adipocytes release large amounts of free fatty acids which regulate insulin action and the metabolism of glucose and lipids in skeletal muscle and liver. They also secrete hormones, inflammatory proteins and other substances with peripheral effects on blood vessels, appetite, energy homeostasis, blood pressure and glucose as well as lipid metabolism. Thus, disturbances in the normal functioning of fat cells have significant consequences on the health of an individual. Despite the importance of the fat mass very little is known about the maintenance of fat cells in humans, how different fat depots are regulated and how, or if, this is altered in obesity.
Lipid turnover and cell age are studied using radiocarbon dating. By studying cell turnover in a variety of different adipose depots (such as various subcutaneous adipose depots as well as visceral depots) we aim to better understand the regulation of the fat mass in humans. Understanding the dynamics of adipocyte turnover may shed new light on potential treatments for obesity.
News
Ny studie visar varför vi går upp i vikt när vi blir äldre
– Fetma och fetma-relaterade sjukdomar har blivit ett globalt problem. Därför har det aldrig varit mer relevant än nu att förstå hur lipider fungerar och vad som reglerar storleken på fettmassan hos människor, säger Kirsty Spalding.
Bored at work? Fat chance
Who cares about the fate of an annoying fat cell? Kirsty Spalding has taken on the task with a great deal of energy and a genuine thirst for knowledge.
Interview with Kirsty Spalding
Kirsty studies how fat tissue contribute to diseases such as metabolic diseases (Kirsty studerar hur fettväven bidrar till olika sjukdomar inkluderande metabola sjukdomar). Intervjun görs på engelska av Kerstin Brismar.
Group Members
Kirsty Spalding
Senior researcherOriginally from Australia, I completed my PhD in the field of neuroscience at the University of Western Australia. This was followed by postdoctoral studies at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, where I switched from studying neuronal cell death to neuronal birth. During the later stages of my postdoctoral period I started a side project looking at fat cell turnover in human adipose tissue. This project developed in to several more projects and now the major interest of my research group is the turnover and maintenance of human adipose tissue, in health and pathology.
Location: Biomedicum A0763
Lena Appelsved
Laboratory engineerI have a Bachelor of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at KI. I have been working in the Spalding group as a lab manager since 2012. Between 1993 and 2012 I was working as a research scientist at AstraZeneca R&D, CNS and Pain. I have 3 years experience at a Clinical Immunology lab at Huddinge hospital as a laboratory technician. I have many administrative tasks in the group, but also contribute to various scientific project.
Location: Biomedicum A0759
Benjamin Dedic
PhD student
Niels Krämer
PhD studentAfter completing a master’s degree in medical epigenomics at the Radboud University, I am currently working as a doctoral student in Kirsty’s group. Here I study the browning potential of mature white adipocytes using fluorescence microscopy, qPCR and other techniques from molecular biology.
Location: Biomedicum A0759
Leo Westerberg
Research assistantI have a master’s degree in molecular biology from Stockholm university and am currently working as a research assistant in Kirsty Spalding’s group. I previously did my thesis project here wherein I tried to understand why adipocytes in the omental depot have lower levels of senescence than adipocytes in the subcutaneous depot, within the same individual. Now I work as a research assistant, assisting in different projects.
Andrea Mosqueda Solis
PostdocI complete my PhD in Nutrigenomics and Personalized Nutrition. The aim of my postdoctoral fellowship is to understand whether adipose tissue consist of subsets of adipocytes with different functions, potentially coming from different origins, the project investigates the heterogeneity of human adipocytes.
Location: Biomedicum A0759
| Previous members in the group | |
|---|---|
| Maria Azorin Ortũno | Viviana Kozina |
| Debajit Bhowmick | Parvin Kumar |
| Carolina Hagberg | Maria Kutschke |
| Mervi Hyvönen | Pauline Ocaya |
| Manizheh Izadi | Beatriz Rosón Burgo |
| Banafsheh Kadkhodaei | Firoozeh Salehzadeh |
| Azadeh Khosravi | Olga Shilkova |
| Anitta Kinga Sárvári | Eleni Terezaki |
| Endre Kiss | Christina Jones |
| Qian Li | Keng-Yeh Fu |
| Helen Silva Cascales | Arthe Raajendiran |
| Paloma Ruiz de Castroviejo Teba |
Selected Publications
Obesity and hyperinsulinemia drive adipocytes to activate a cell cycle program and senesce.
Li Q, Hagberg CE, Silva Cascales H, Lang S, Hyvönen MT, Salehzadeh F, Chen P, Alexandersson I, Terezaki E, Harms MJ, Kutschke M, Arifen N, Krämer N, Aouadi M, Knibbe C, Boucher J, Thorell A, Spalding KL
Nat Med 2021 11;27(11):1941-1953
Adipose lipid turnover and long-term changes in body weight.
Arner P, Bernard S, Appelsved L, Fu KY, Andersson DP, Salehpour M, et al
Nat. Med. 2019 09;25(9):1385-1389
Mature Human White Adipocytes Cultured under Membranes Maintain Identity, Function, and Can Transdifferentiate into Brown-like Adipocytes.
Harms MJ, Li Q, Lee S, Zhang C, Kull B, Hallen S, et al
Cell Rep 2019 04;27(1):213-225.e5
Comprehensive human cell-type methylation atlas reveals origins of circulating cell-free DNA in health and disease.
Moss J, Magenheim J, Neiman D, Zemmour H, Loyfer N, Korach A, et al
Nat Commun 2018 11;9(1):5068
Transforming Growth Factor-β3 Regulates Adipocyte Number in Subcutaneous White Adipose Tissue.
Petrus P, Mejhert N, Corrales P, Lecoutre S, Li Q, Maldonado E, et al
Cell Rep 2018 10;25(3):551-560.e5
Flow Cytometry of Mouse and Human Adipocytes for the Analysis of Browning and Cellular Heterogeneity.
Hagberg CE, Li Q, Kutschke M, Bhowmick D, Kiss E, Shabalina IG, et al
Cell Rep 2018 09;24(10):2746-2756.e5