Here, we established dedifferentiated fat (DFAT) cells from mature bovine adipocytes and then examined the effects of volatile fatty acids on the differentiation of these DFAT cells into adipocytes in vitro. When mature adipocytes were isolated from bovine adipose tissue and cultured using the ceiling culture method, they were dedifferentiated into fibroblast‐like cells without lipid droplets. These fibroblast‐like cells, termed bovine DFAT (b‐DFAT) cells, actively proliferated. After adipogenic induction, increased expression of adipocyte‐specific genes occurred in b‐DFAT cells and they redifferentiated into adipocytes with an accumulation of lipid droplets in their cytoplasm. The effects of volatile fatty acids on adipocyte differentiation in b‐DFAT cells were also examined. Specifically, acetate, butyrate, and propionate added to adipogenic induction medium significantly enhanced the adipogenesis of b‐DFAT cells compared with that observed in control cells; the addition of 10−3 mol of acetate enhanced adipogenesis of b‐DFAT cells to the greatest extent. These results suggest that b‐DFAT cells derived from bovine mature adipocytes are appropriate for the study of bovine adipocyte differentiation and that the optimum concentration treatment of acetate, a major energy source for ruminants, promotes adipogenesis of b‐DFAT cells in vitro.

Mature adipocyte-derived dedifferentiated fat (DFAT) cells have been identified to possess similar multipotency to mesenchymal stem cells, but a method for converting DFAT cells into hepatocytes was previously unknown. Here, using comprehensive analysis of gene expression profiles, we have extracted three transcription factors,