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ADIPOSE TISSUE

AcroBATics: how dying brown adipocytes trigger browning

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 18, pages 661–662 (2022)Cite this article

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Thermogenic brown and beige adipocytes have gained much attention as potential therapeutic targets in obesity and related cardiometabolic disease. A recent paper in Nature identifies inosine, released from apoptotic brown adipocytes, as an inducer of thermogenic adipose tissue, thereby uncovering an unexpected and novel mechanism of adipose tissue plasticity.

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Fig. 1: Dying brown adipocytes release inosine to induce thermogenic adipocytes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ulm University Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Ulm, Germany

    Julia Zinngrebe & Pamela Fischer-Posovszky

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  1. Julia Zinngrebe
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  2. Pamela Fischer-Posovszky
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Correspondence to Pamela Fischer-Posovszky.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Zinngrebe, J., Fischer-Posovszky, P. AcroBATics: how dying brown adipocytes trigger browning. Nat Rev Endocrinol 18, 661–662 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-022-00743-x

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