Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Québec, Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec G1V 4G5, Canada.
Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Aug;24(8):408-20. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2013.04.002. Epub 2013 May 24.
Brown adipocytes are specialized cells capable of undergoing thermogenesis, a phenomenon regulated by the sympathetic nervous system, due to the presence of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). The recent demonstrations of their presence in adult humans, and the discovery that brown adipocytes can be derived from distinct precursors and express specific genes depending on their anatomic location, have sparked intense interest in enhancing the current understanding of their biology and relevance to human energy homeostasis. We provide an overview of the latest advances related to the developmental origins of brown adipocytes, discuss their regulation and function in both rodents and humans, and offer a critical perspective on the relevance of brown adipocyte-mediated thermogenesis in human physiology.
棕色脂肪细胞是一种能够进行产热的特化细胞，这种现象受交感神经系统的调节，原因是存在解偶联蛋白 1（UCP1）。最近在成年人体内发现了棕色脂肪细胞的存在，并且发现棕色脂肪细胞可以由不同的前体细胞衍生而来，并根据其解剖位置表达特定的基因，这激发了人们极大的兴趣，以增强对其生物学和对人类能量平衡相关性的现有理解。我们提供了与棕色脂肪细胞发育起源相关的最新进展概述，讨论了它们在啮齿动物和人类中的调节和功能，并对棕色脂肪细胞介导的产热在人类生理学中的相关性提出了批判性的观点。
