Modelling adipocytes size distribution

• Adipocytes size distribution is bimodal.
• Adipocytes inflate and deflate according to lipid fluxes.
• We model the lipid fluxes in adipocytes.
• We show a saddle-node bifurcation with two stable modes.
• We use individual-based system to model cells and obtain bimodal distribution.

Adipocytes are cells whose task is to store excess energy as lipid droplets in their cytoplasm. Adipocytes can adapt their size according to the lipid amount to be stored. Adipocyte size variation can reach one order of magnitude inside the same organism which is unique among cells. A striking feature in adipocytes size distribution is the lack of characteristic size since typical size distributions are bimodal. Since energy can be stored and retrieved and adipocytes are responsible for these lipid fluxes, we propose a simple model of size-dependent lipid fluxes that is able to predict typical adipocytes size distribution.