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Debugging the host browns the fat

Nature Medicine volume 21, pages 1390–1391 (2015)Cite this article

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Microbiota depletion promotes type 2 cytokine signaling and browning in white adipose tissue of mice.

When humans had to hunt for and gather food, white adipose tissue (WAT)—the depot that stores fat for use during starvation—was particularly beneficial. However, ever since the Industrial Revolution ushered in an era of food overabundance in many developed countries, the overaccumulation of excess fat as WAT has contributed to a skyrocketing prevalence of obesity and metabolic dysfunction. Unlike the WAT, the highly innervated and vascularized brown adipose tissue (BAT) is the 'bio-furnace' that burns fat and glucose to generate heat1,2. This exothermic organ is densely packed with mitochondria expressing uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1, also known as thermogenin), which short-circuits the energy-rich proton gradient and uncouples oxidative phosphorylation to release energy as heat. UCP1 is reminiscent in function of a weight-loss chemical used centuries ago, dinitrophenol, which eliminated fat—as well as people—by inducing hyperpyrexia2. Indeed, it is thought that active BAT can improve metabolic function, in addition to safely promoting weight loss by burning excess adipose fat2. Although BAT predominates in newborns and hibernating animals to facilitate non-shivering thermogenesis, it was initially assumed that the BAT regresses as humans grow past infancy1,2. However, the recent discovery of beige (brown-in-white, 'brite' or inducible BAT) adipose tissue, which has fat-burning properties similar to those of BAT, but which develops from WAT or its precursors, has reinvigorated the possibility that we could 're-color' human fat to combat the growing obesity epidemic2.

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Figure 1: Gut microbiota reversibly regulates the browning of beige adipose tissue.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beng San Yeoh and Matam Vijay-Kumar are in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA.,

    Beng San Yeoh & Matam Vijay-Kumar

  2. Matam Vijay-Kumar is also in the Department of Medicine, The Pennsylvania State University Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.,

    Matam Vijay-Kumar

Authors
  1. Beng San Yeoh
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  2. Matam Vijay-Kumar
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Correspondence to Matam Vijay-Kumar.

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Yeoh, B., Vijay-Kumar, M. Debugging the host browns the fat. Nat Med 21, 1390–1391 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3999

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