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Development

Brown fat: muscle undercover?

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 9, pages 742–743 (2008)Cite this article

In mammals, white adipose tissue stores energy in the form of fat and is associated with obesity, whereas the brown variant burns fat to generate heat, thereby counteracting obesity. Stimulating an increase in brown fat in humans might therefore be a potential treatment for obesity, but this first requires a full understanding of the developmental origin of the two fat tissues.

...brown fat cells arise from skeletal muscle precursors.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Seale, P. et al. PRDM16 controls a brown fat/skeletal muscle switch. Nature 454, 961–967 (2008)

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  2. Tseng, Y.-H. et al. New role of bone morphogenetic protein 7 in brown adipogenesis and energy expenditure. Nature 454, 1000–1004 (2008)

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Authors
  1. Francesca Cesari
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Cesari, F. Brown fat: muscle undercover?. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 9, 742–743 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2507

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