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Developmental biology

Neither fat nor flesh

In mammals, white adipose tissue stores fat, whereas brown adipose tissue burns fat. Brown adipocytes have a common origin with muscle cells, which could help explain their unusual function.

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Figure 1: A revised model of the origins of fat cells.

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Cannon, B., Nedergaard, J. Neither fat nor flesh. Nature 454, 947–948 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454947a

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