This review summarizes recent animal studies performed to determine the possible role played by sex hormones in the sex- and site-related differences characterizing adipocyte lipolytic activity. In both normal female rats and male hamsters, fat cells from deep intra-abdominal sites elicit higher catecholamine-stimulated lipolytic responses than subcutaneous adipocytes. By using ovariectomized rats, it was found that estradiol 'in vivo', while having no effect in subcutaneous cells, promotes catecholamine-stimulated lipolysis in deep intraabdominal adipocytes by increasing their adenylate cyclase catalytic activity. By using castrated hamsters, it was found that both deep intra-abdominal and subcutaneous fat cell lipolytic activities are equally sensitive to testosterone. In these cells, testosterone treatment promotes not only the beta-adrenergic lipolytic responses by increasing both the adenylate cyclase catalytic activity and the Gs alpha level, but also enhances the alpha 2-adrenergic antilipolytic responses through a transcriptional activation of the alpha 2-adrenoceptor expression. These experiments demonstrate that in some, but not all, white adipocytes the adrenergic signal transducing system regulating lipolysis is a target for sex hormones. This finding may have potential importance in the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the sex-related regional specificities of adipose tissue metabolism and distribution.