Key Laboratory of Regenerative Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Adipocyte. 2022 Dec;11(1):529-549. doi: 10.1080/21623945.2022.2111053.
Interscapular brown adipose tissue (iBAT) of both rabbits and humans exhibits a similar whitening phenomenon under physiological conditions. However, a detailed characterization of iBAT whitening in them is still lacking. Here, we chose rabbits as a model to gain a better understanding of the molecular signature changes during the whitening process of iBAT by transcriptomic analysis of rabbit iBAT at day 1, day 14, 1 month and 4 months after birth. We applied non-invasive MRI imaging to monitor the whitening process and correlated these changes with analysis of morphological, histological and molecular features. Principal component analysis (PCA) of differentially expressed genes delineated three major phases for the whitening process as Brown, Transition and Whitened BAT phases. RNA-sequencing data revealed that whitening of iBAT was an orchestrated process where multiple types of cells and tissues participated in a variety of physiological processes including neovascularization, formation of new nervous networks and immune regulation. Several key metabolic and signalling pathways contributed to whitening of iBAT, and immune cells and immune regulation appeared to play an overarching role.
兔和人类的肩胛间棕色脂肪组织 (iBAT) 在生理条件下均表现出类似的白化现象。然而，它们的 iBAT 白化的详细特征描述仍然缺乏。在这里，我们选择兔子作为模型，通过对出生后 1 天、14 天、1 个月和 4 个月的兔 iBAT 的转录组分析，来更好地了解 iBAT 白化过程中的分子特征变化。我们应用非侵入性 MRI 成像来监测白化过程，并将这些变化与形态学、组织学和分子特征分析相关联。差异表达基因的主成分分析 (PCA) 将白化过程划分为三个主要阶段：棕色、过渡和白化 BAT 阶段。RNA-seq 数据显示，iBAT 的白化是一个协调的过程，其中多种类型的细胞和组织参与了多种生理过程，包括新生血管形成、新神经网络的形成和免疫调节。几个关键的代谢和信号通路有助于 iBAT 的白化，免疫细胞和免疫调节似乎起着主导作用。
