Department of Medical and Clinical Genetics; Institute of Biomedicine; The Sahlgrenska Academy; University of Gothenburg; Gothenburg, Sweden.
Adipocyte. 2014 Jan 1;3(1):63-6. doi: 10.4161/adip.26896. Epub 2013 Oct 28.
During the last years the existence of metabolically active brown adipose tissue in adult humans has been widely accepted by the research community. Its unique ability to dissipate chemical energy stored in triglycerides as heat makes it an attractive target for new drugs against obesity and its related diseases. Hence the tissue is now subject to intense research, the hypothesis being that an expansion and/or activation of the tissue is associated with a healthy metabolic phenotype. Animal studies provide evidence for the existence of at least two types of brown adipocytes. Apart from the classical brown adipocyte that is found primarily in the interscapular region where it constitutes a thermogenic organ, a second type of brown adipocyte, the so-called beige adipocyte, can appear within white adipose tissue depots. The fact that the two cell types develop from different precursors suggests that they might be recruited and stimulated by different cues and therefore represent two distinct targets for therapeutic intervention. The aim of this commentary is to discuss recent work addressing the question whether also humans possess two types of brown adipocytes and to highlight some issues when looking for molecular markers for such cells.
在过去的几年中，研究界已经广泛接受了成年人体内存在代谢活跃的棕色脂肪组织这一观点。其将甘油三酯中储存的化学能量以热量形式消耗的独特能力使其成为对抗肥胖及其相关疾病的新药的有吸引力的靶点。因此，该组织目前正受到深入研究，其假设是组织的扩张和/或激活与健康的代谢表型有关。动物研究为至少两种类型的棕色脂肪细胞的存在提供了证据。除了主要存在于肩胛间区域的经典棕色脂肪细胞（构成产热器官）外，第二种类型的棕色脂肪细胞，即所谓的米色脂肪细胞，可以出现在白色脂肪组织中。这两种细胞类型来源于不同的前体细胞这一事实表明，它们可能被不同的信号募集和刺激，因此代表了治疗干预的两个不同靶点。本文的目的是讨论最近关于人类是否也存在两种类型的棕色脂肪细胞的研究，并强调在寻找这些细胞的分子标记时需要注意的一些问题。
