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Transcriptional control of brown adipocyte development and thermogenesis

International Journal of Obesity volume 34, pages S17–S22 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a specialized endothermic tissue in eutherian mammals that protects against hypothermia. Heat production by BAT may also be stimulated by overfeeding as an apparent counter regulatory mechanism to prevent excessive adipose accumulation. Genetic studies in rodents have overwhelmingly demonstrated an antiobesity effect for BAT. There is thus substantial biomedical interest in developing methods to increase the amount or function of BAT as a means to combat obesity. Furthermore, the recent discovery that adult humans have rather significant amounts of active BAT raises speculation that this tissue may naturally affect body weight in humans. Recent advances in our understanding of the transcriptional regulation of brown adipocyte development and adaptive thermogenesis are reviewed here.

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Acknowledgements

I apologize that I was unable to cite a number of papers that have contributed to this field because of space limitations. I thank Dr Jeff Ishibashi and Dr Wenli Yang for discussions and careful reading of the paper. This work is supported by a NIH grant to PS (DK081605) and by the DERC at the University of Pennsylvania from a grant sponsored by NIH DK 19525.

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  1. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    P Seale

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Seale, P. Transcriptional control of brown adipocyte development and thermogenesis. Int J Obes 34 (Suppl 1), S17–S22 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2010.178

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