RESUMO
The adipose tissue represents a large amount of adult tissue. For long time, it was considered as a filling tissue and used in plastic and reconstructive surgery. It was always studied for its main involvement in energy metabolism and energy disorders as diabetes and obesity. More recently, its endocrine functions emerged and thus play a key role in many physiological functions as inflammation and immunity. The presence of preadipocytes throughout life was demonstrated using primary culture technology from cells derived from adipose tissue. In recent papers, cells derived from adipose tissue were used for haematopoiesis, vascularisation or skeletal muscle recovery. Differentiation into functional cardiomyocytes, osteoblasts and neural cells was obtained in vitro. These spectacular data, the fact that adipose tissue is easy to sample and the possibility to create cell or tissue banks open numerous and promising perspectives in regenerative medicine.