Effects of diet and acute noradrenaline treatment on brown adipose tissue development and mitochondrial purine-nucleotide binding.

Feeding rats a highly palatable 'cafeteria' diet resulted in a two-fold increase in interscapular brown adipose tissue (b.a.t.) mass after only 3 d on the diet. No significant difference in DNA content of b.a.t. was noted between control and cafeteria-fed rats at this time but DNA content was elevated 2-3-fold in the latter group by day 30, and incorporation rates of tritiated thymidine into DNA were elevated in these animals after 5, 15 and 30 d of cafeteria feeding. A doubling of specific GDP (per mg protein) to b.a.t. mitochondria was seen in cafeteria-fed rats on days 3, 15 and 30 and total GDP binding in the interscapular depot was increased by 3-4-fold. Injection of the animals with noradrenaline (25 micrograms/100 g body weight) 1 h before killing caused 180 and 430% increases in b.a.t. mitochondrial GDP binding in control and cafeteria-fed rats respectively. Linear Scatchard plots of binding data obtained from 15 d control and cafeteria groups indicated a single class of receptor, with the same affinity for GDP in all animals, but the maximum number of binding sites was markedly elevated in cafeteria rats and was increased further after treatment with noradrenaline 1 h prior to sacrifice. When cafeteria-fed rats were returned to stock diet alone the differences in b.a.t. mass and GDP binding diminished but after 10 d brown fat mass and noradrenaline-stimulated GDP binding were still significantly higher than control levels. These data provide further evidence for the involvement of b.a.t. and its mitochondrial proton conductance pathway in diet-induced changes in thermogenic capacity.