['We recently reported that white preadipocytes phagocyte and kill micro-organisms, suggesting an active involvement of fat cells in host defence. Since characteristics of adipose tissues vary according to their localization, we measured the phagocytic capacity of stromal-vascular fraction (SVF) cells from different pads of white and brown adipose tissue in primary culture.', 'The microbicidal activities of SVF cells in inguinal and epididymal white depots were similar, but much higher than in brown fat pad. Considering the whole pad, the highest cytotoxic potential was found in inguinal white adipose tissue (WAT) depot, whereas interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT) showed an extremely low ability to kill micro-organisms. These differences might be mainly attributed to preadipocyte activities, with regard to the low content in resident macrophages identified by their expression of F4/80 antigen.'] Do adipose tissues display differential phagocytic and microbicidal activities depending on their localization?