Department of Pharmacology, School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine , Beijing China.
College of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine , Beijing, China.
Adipocyte. 2021 Dec;10(1):48-65. doi: 10.1080/21623945.2020.1870060.
Mammalian adipose tissue can be divided into two major types, namely, white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT). According to classical view, the main function of WAT is to store excess energy in the form of triglycerides, while BAT is a thermogenic tissue that acts a pivotal part in maintaining the core body temperature. White adipocytes display high plasticity and can transdifferentiate into beige adipocytes which have many similar morphological and functional properties with brown adipocytes under the stimulations of exercise, cold exposure and other factors. This phenomenon is also known as 'browning of WAT'. In addition to transdifferentiation, beige adipocytes can also come from de novo differentiation from tissue-resident progenitors. Activating BAT and inducing browning of WAT can accelerate the intake of glycolipids and reduce the insulin secretion requirement, which may be a new strategy to improve glycolipids metabolism and insulin resistance of obese and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. This review mainly discusses the significance of brown and beige adipose tissues in the treatment of obesity and T2DM, and focuses on the effect of the browning agent on obesity and T2DM, which provides a brand-new theoretical reference for the prevention and treatment of obesity and T2DM.
哺乳动物的脂肪组织可以分为两种主要类型，即白色脂肪组织（WAT）和棕色脂肪组织（BAT）。根据经典观点，WAT 的主要功能是将多余的能量以甘油三酯的形式储存起来，而 BAT 是一种产热组织，在维持核心体温方面起着关键作用。白色脂肪细胞表现出很高的可塑性，在运动、冷暴露等因素的刺激下可以转分化为米色脂肪细胞，其具有与棕色脂肪细胞许多相似的形态和功能特性。这种现象也被称为“WAT 褐变”。除了转分化之外，米色脂肪细胞还可以从组织驻留祖细胞中从头分化而来。激活 BAT 并诱导 WAT 褐变可以加速糖脂的摄取并减少胰岛素分泌的需求，这可能是改善肥胖和 2 型糖尿病（T2DM）患者糖脂代谢和胰岛素抵抗的一种新策略。本文主要讨论了棕色和米色脂肪组织在肥胖和 T2DM 治疗中的意义，并重点介绍了褐变剂对肥胖和 T2DM 的影响，为肥胖和 T2DM 的防治提供了全新的理论参考。
