Abstract
Extract: Minced samples of brown and white adipose tissue from young rats were incubated with various lipolytic agents. Both tissues responded well to norepinephrine (10 μg/ml buffer), theophyllin (2.5 or 5 mg/ml), and dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP) (10-3 M) by releasing glycerol. Brown adipose tissue from newborn rats and rats older than 20 days was responsive to both glucagon and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) (10 μg/ml), but between days 2 and 20 did not react to these hormones. Responsiveness of brown adipose tissue to ACTH could be induced prematurely by injecting 5 mg cortisone acetate/100 g body weight on days 8 and 9. Such injections also enhanced the response to ACTH 30 days later. Subcutaneous white adipose tissue became responsive to glucagon after day 18 but later in life did not react to this hormone. Ovarian and epididymal adipose tissues, however, showed an increase in responsiveness to glucagon.
Speculation: Our results indicate that there are some basic differences in the responsiveness to lipolytic agents not only between brown adipose tissue and white subcutaneous tissue but also between those tissues and epididymal and ovarian fat. It appears that a developmental approach to explain these differences might clarify the mechanisms responsible for differences in the responsiveness of the adenyl cyclases of the various tissues studied.
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Medical Research Council of Canada Associate
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Willow Pavilion, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Hahn, P. Response of Brown and White Adipose Tissue to Lipolytic Agents in the Rat during Development. Pediatr Res 5, 126–130 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197103000-00004
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197103000-00004