Orbital Adipose Tissue: Just a Fat Pad or Terra Incognita in Ophthalmology

Our understanding of the role of adipose tissue has been completely changed during the past decades. The knowledge of its contribution to endocrine and immune pathways opened the new insights on the pathogenesis and therapy of many diseases and new perspectives for the regenerative medicine. The further researches should be provided to study anatomy and functions of local fat depots in more details. Of the most interest is the orbital adipose tissue due to its origin from the neural crest. This review represents the current data about anatomy, structure, cell composition and biochemistry of orbital fat. The main attention is put to such cell types as adipocytes and adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells. The foreign authors’ findings on such characteristics of stem cells from orbital adipose tissue as CD markers and differential capacity are reviewed. The found evidences of interaction between orbital adipose tissue, eyeball and associated structures allow us to hypothesize that this fat depot may contribute to various ocular pathology. In this paper, we outlined the possible directions for further investigation and clinical application of orbital fat and cells its composing in ophthalmology, reconstructive and plastic surgery and regenerative medicine.