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Nature 454, 947-948 (21 August 2008) | doi:10.1038/454947a; Published online 20 August 2008

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Developmental biology: Neither fat nor flesh

Barbara Cannon1 & Jan Nedergaard1

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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.

In 1551, when the Swiss naturalist Konrad Gessner first described1 brown adipose tissue, he stated that it was "neither fat, nor flesh [nec pinguitudo, nec caro] — but something in between". Some 450 years later, Tseng et al.2 and Seale et al.3, writing in this issue, provide compelling evidence that brown and white fat cells are indeed distinct and that, after all, Gessner had correctly guessed the origin of brown fat cells — they are not flesh (muscle), but they are much more flesh-like than previously suspected.

  1. Barbara Cannon and Jan Nedergaard are at the Wenner-Gren Institute, Arrhenius Laboratories F3, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
    Email: barbara.cannon@wgi.su.se

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