Functional Brown Adipose Tissue in Healthy Adults

Virtanen, Kirsi A.; Lidell, Martin E.; Orava, Janne; Heglind, Mikael; Westergren, Rickard; Niemi, Tarja; Taittonen, Markku; Laine, Jukka; Savisto, Nina-Johanna; Enerbäck, Sven; Nuutila, Pirjo

doi:10.1056/nejmoa0808949

Cited by 2,700 publications

(2,324 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

2,211

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…When UCP-1 is activated by fatty acids, brown adipose tissue burns fat without synthesising ATP. Brown adipocytes, including human brown adipocytes [61], express the 3-adrenoceptor (3-adrenergic receptor). From the 1970s until about 2009 the prevailing view, despite some evidence to the contrary, was that brown adipose tissue is present in human neonates and infants but does not occur in significant amounts in adult humans.…”

Section: Brown Adipose Tissuementioning

confidence: 99%

Horizons in the Pharmacotherapy of Obesity

Arch

2015

Curr Obes Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Obesity drugs have had a chequered history. In the recent past, only the low efficacy, pancreatic lipase inhibitor orlistat was available worldwide and it was little used. The 5HT2C agonist lorcaserin, and two combinations of old drugs have been approved in the United States but not in Europe. The diabetes drug liraglutide has been approved in both the US and Europe and seems likely to be most widely accepted. In view of regulators' caution in approving obesity drugs, some (like beloranib) may initially be progressed for niche obesity markets. New drug targets have been identified in brown adipose tissue with the aim of not only activating thermogenesis but also increasing the capacity for thermogenesis in this tissue. Attempts are being made to match the efficacy of bariatric surgery by mimicking multiple gut hormones. Unapproved pharmacotherapies are tempting for some patients. Others remain optimistic about more conventional routes to pharmacotherapy.3

show abstract

Section: Brown Adipose Tissuementioning

confidence: 99%

Horizons in the Pharmacotherapy of Obesity

Arch

2015

Curr Obes Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Visceral WAT accumulates with advancing age in men and women (Weisberg et al 2003;Ortega et al 2008;Gavi et al 2007), and inflammatory processes within visceral WAT place the elderly at increased risk for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (Trayhurn and Beattie 2001;Trayhurn 2005;Cartwright et al 2007;Huffman and Barzilai 2009). Recent evidence indicates that thermogenic brown fat decreases with age and this change contributes to obesity (Nedergaard et al 2007;Cypess et al 2009;van Marken Lichtenbelt et al 2009;Virtanen et al 2009). Furthermore, biological aging is associated with increased bone marrow adipogenesis, an etiologic factor underlying osteopenia and osteoporosis (Meunier et al 1971;Gimble et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological aging alters circadian mechanisms in murine adipose tissue depots

Sutton

Ptitsyn

Floyd

et al. 2012

AGE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biological aging alters the metabolism and volume of adipose tissue depots. Recent evidence suggests that circadian mechanisms play a role in promoting adipogenesis, obesity, and lipodystrophy.The current study compared cohorts of younger (5-9 months) and older (24-28 months) C57BL/6 mice as a function of biological age and circadian time. Advanced age significantly reduced the weight of the AGE (2013) 35:533-547 DOI 10.1007 Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11357-012-9389-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. brown, epididymal, inguinal, and retroperitoneal adipose depots but not total body weight. The older mice reduced their physical activity by >50% and delayed their activity initiation after light offset. The expressed transcriptome in brown and white adipose depots and liver of both cohorts displayed evidence of circadian rhythmicity; however, the oscillating mRNAs differed significantly between age groups and across tissues. The amplitude of Cry1, a component of the negative arm of the circadian apparatus, and downstream regulators such as Rev-erbα were elevated in the older relative to the younger cohorts as a function of circadian time. Overall, transcript levels differed significantly for 557 (inguinal adipose), 1,016 (liver), and 1,021 (brown adipose) expressed sequences between the cohorts as a function of age. These included transcripts encoding proteins within the canonical and non-canonical Wnt pathways. Since the Wnt pathway regulates adipose stem cell differentiation and shares a critical enzyme, glycogen synthase kinase 3β, with the circadian mechanism, the intersection between these two fundamental regulatory mechanisms merits further investigation with respect to biological aging of adipose tissues.

show abstract

“…1 Obesity is defined by the expansion of white adipose tissue (WAT), but recent evidence suggests that the adult human body also contains functionally distinct, brown adipose tissue. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8] In contrast to WAT, which has a primary role in energy storage, brown adipose tissue specializes in energy dissipation as heat (Cannon and Nedergaard 9 ). This thermogenic property of brown fat results from its high content of mitochondria, cell organelles where energy dissipation occurs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-fat diet induces emergence of brown-like adipocytes in white adipose tissue of spontaneously hypertensive rats

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Obesity has a profound adverse impact on health. In this study, we present evidence for high-fat diet (HFD)-induced emergence of brown-like adipocytes in white adipose tissue (WAT) of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). We studied adult males fed a HFD or normal diet (ND) for 12 weeks. At the end of the 12-week dietary intervention, HFD compared with ND rats showed significantly higher whole-body energy expenditure. HFD vs. ND rats also showed higher expression of genes involved in fatty acid oxidation, mitochondrial biogenesis and brown fat adipogenesis, as well as augmented mitochondrial mass in WAT but not in the liver or skeletal muscle. Consistent with the molecular changes, in HFD but not in ND rats, histological and immunohistochemistry-based analyses of WAT demonstrated the presence of small multilocular cells staining positively for uncoupling protein 1, indicating the emergence of brown-like adipocytes in WAT. Our results suggest that SHR may have the capacity to increase energy expenditure in response to a chronic HFD that may be linked to the emergence of brown-like adipocytes in WAT. Thus, the SHR may be an important genetic model to uncover novel mechanisms of resistance to dietary obesity.

show abstract

Functional Brown Adipose Tissue in Healthy Adults

Cited by 2,700 publications

References 17 publications

Horizons in the Pharmacotherapy of Obesity

Horizons in the Pharmacotherapy of Obesity

Biological aging alters circadian mechanisms in murine adipose tissue depots

High-fat diet induces emergence of brown-like adipocytes in white adipose tissue of spontaneously hypertensive rats

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About