Brown adipose tissue of mice with gold thioglucose-induced obesity: effect of cold and diet.

Gold thioglucose (GTG)-obese mice have a larger than normal amount of brown adipose tissue (BAT) with ultrastructurally normal mitochondria. The tissue grows normally when the mice adapt to cafeteria feeding or to cold (8 degrees C). Acute exposure to cold causes a fairly normal thermogenic activation of BAT mitochondria of GTG-obese mice, both in dynamic and static phases of their obesity. However, chow-fed GTG-obese mice have BAT mitochondria that are in a low state of thermogenic activation, and these mice fail to respond to eating a cafeteria diet for 3 wk by a normal thermogenic activation of their BAT mitochondria. More prolonged cafeteria feeding for 11-13 wk, into the static phase of obesity, is associated with thermogenic activation of BAT mitochondria of GTG-obese mice. The capacity of GTG-obese mice to respond to noradrenaline (norepinephrine) by an increase in metabolic rate is greater than that of lean mice and is further enhanced by cold acclimation. It is concluded that BAT of the GTG-obese mouse is inherently functional, as is control of its thermogenic function and growth during cold exposure and cold acclimation. Dietary influences on BAT thermogenic function are, however, defective in the GTG-obese mouse at least during the dynamic phase of its obesity. The resulting failure of diet-induced thermogenesis would be expected to contribute to the known high metabolic efficiency of the GTG-obese mouse and, together with the hyperphagia, to the obesity induced by GTG.