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Of mice and men: novel insights regarding constitutive and recruitable brown adipocytes

International Journal of Obesity Supplements volume 5, pages S15–S20 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recently, there has been great attention given to the possibility of combating obesity by targeting brown fat activity or increasing differentiation of brown adipocytes in white fat depots through a process termed ‘browning’. Sympathetic innervation of brown and white adipose tissues provides adrenergic input that drives thermogenesis and regulates fatty acid metabolism, as well as stimulating adipogenesis of recruitable brown adipocyte tissue (rBAT, also known as beige or brite) in white fat. Other factors acting in an endocrine or autocrine/paracrine manner in adipose tissue may also stimulate browning. There have been significant recent advances in understanding the mechanisms of increasing adipose tissue energy expenditure, as well as how brown adipocytes appear in white fat depots, including via de novo adipogenesis from tissue precursor cells. In this article, we integrate this new knowledge with a historical perspective on the discovery of ‘browning’. We also provide an overview of constitutive BAT vs rBAT in mouse and human.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E Caniano for administrative assistance and MD Lynes for assistance with the mouse and human drawings in Figure 1. This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants R01 DK077097 (to Y-HT) and P30 DK036836 (Diabetes Research Center to the Joslin Diabetes Center), a research grant from the American Diabetes Association (to Y-HT), and funding from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (to Y-HT). KLT was funded by NIH grants T32 DK007260-33 and F32 DK091996 as well as a BADERC P&F, a BNORC P&F, and an ADA Junior Faculty Award 1-14-JF-55.

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The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. This article is published as part of a supplement sponsored by the Université Laval’s Research Chair in Obesity, in an effort to inform the public on the causes, consequences, treatments and prevention of obesity.

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  1. Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    K L Townsend & Y-H Tseng

  2. Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Y-H Tseng

  3. School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

    K L Townsend

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  1. K L Townsend
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Correspondence to Y-H Tseng.

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Y-HT has received consulting fees from Ember Therapeutics, lecture fees from Pfizer Inc., and received grant support from Chugai Pharma Co., Ltd and MedImmune LLC. KLT declares no conflict of interest.

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Townsend, K., Tseng, YH. Of mice and men: novel insights regarding constitutive and recruitable brown adipocytes. Int J Obes Supp 5 (Suppl 1), S15–S20 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijosup.2015.5

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