Brown adipose tissue transplantation improves whole-body energy metabolism

• 来源期刊: 细胞研究（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2013,（6）
• 页码范围: 851-854
• 页数: 4页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1038/cr.2013.64

摘要

Dear editor, In addition to the energy-storing white adipose tissue (WAT),mammals possess brown adipose tissue (BAT)that burns fat to release heat for thermogenesis.BAT is abundant in mammals with high thermoregulatory demands,such as small mammals and the neonates of large mammals [1].BAT was previously believed to be present only in small mammals and human infants.However,active BAT was also demonstrated in adult humans in the early 1990s [2-3].Interestingly,in adult humans,BAT activity shows an inverse correlation with body mass index (BMI) and the percentage of body fat [4-5].These findings indicate that BAT may play an important role in whole-body energy metabolism,although direct evidence is still lacking.In the current study,we found that BAT transplantation improved whole-body energy metabolism and increased insulin sensitivity.In addition,BAT transplantation not only prevented high-fat diet (HFD)-induced weight gain but also reversed preexisting obesity.Furthermore,we showed that these effects were BAT-transplantation specific,as transplantation of other tissues did not produce similar effects.