ABOVE: © IKUMI KAYAMA, STUDIO KAYAMA
Before pregnancy, mouse mammary tissue contains large fat cells filled with lipids. To follow the adipocytes’ fate through lactation, researchers stained them blue:
During breastfeeding, these labeled cells lose their lipids and shrink dramatically. They also show signs of reprogramming to a precursor state:
After lactation, when milk-producing cells die off in a process called involution, these same blue cells fill back up with lipids and redifferentiate into adipocytes:
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