Saito Masayuki
Department of Nutrition, Tenshi College, Sapporo 065-0013, Japan.
Endocr J. 2014;61(5):409-16. doi: 10.1507/endocrj.ej13-0527. Epub 2014 Jan 9.
Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is the site of sympathetically activated adaptive thermognenesis during cold exposure and after hyperphagia, thereby controlling whole-body energy expenditure (EE) and body fat. Radionuclide imaging studies have demonstrated that adult humans have metabolically active BAT composed of mainly beige/brite adipocytes, recently identified brown-like adipocytes. The inverse relationship between the BAT activity and body fatness suggests that BAT is, because of its energy dissipating activity, protective against body fat accumulation in humans as it is in small rodents. In fact, either repeated cold exposure or daily ingestion of some food ingredients acting on transient receptor potential channels recruits BAT in parallel with increased EE and decreased body fat. In addition to the sympathetic nervous system, several endocrine factors are also shown to recruit BAT. Thus, BAT is a promising therapeutic target for combating human obesity and related metabolic disorders.
棕色脂肪组织（BAT）是冷暴露期间和摄食过量后交感神经激活的适应性产热部位，从而控制全身能量消耗（EE）和体脂。放射性核素成像研究表明，成年人体内存在代谢活跃的BAT，主要由米色/亮棕色脂肪细胞组成，即最近发现的棕色样脂肪细胞。BAT活性与体脂率之间的负相关关系表明，BAT因其能量消耗活性，如同在小型啮齿动物中一样，对人类防止体脂积累具有保护作用。事实上，反复冷暴露或每日摄入一些作用于瞬时受体电位通道的食物成分，会在增加EE和减少体脂的同时激活BAT。除了交感神经系统外，一些内分泌因子也被证明可激活BAT。因此，BAT是对抗人类肥胖及相关代谢紊乱的一个有前景的治疗靶点。
