Adipocytes are dispensable in shaping the ovarian cancer tumor microenvironment in the omentum

The prevailing view is that omental adipocytes promote tumor growth by providinglipids, since global FABP4 deficiency curbs tumor growth. Here, we generated mice lacking mature adipocytes in the peritoneum and omentum.

ID8p53–/–Brca2–/– , BPPNM, and KPCA OC cells retained a propensity to seed at regions typically associated with adipocytes, even without mature adipocytes. However, lack of mature adipocytes did not suppress peritoneal OC expansion, whereas removing the adipocyte-free omentum did. Murine and human single-cell RNA sequencing analysis revealed that endothelial FABP4 was high in the omentum.