title: Brown adipose tissue: the molecular mechanism of its formation.
abstract: The function of brown adipose tissue (BAT) is to oxidize fat and to dissipate the energy produced as heat, providing a source of heat to the organism. Preadipocytes are stimulated by expression of the PRDM16 gene to differentiate into BAT cells. The PRDM16 protein is greatly enriched in BAT and causes increased expression of mitochondrial genes and greater density of mitochondria. It increases expression of the uncoupling factor UCP1 and thereby causes a large stimulation of uncoupled respiration with resultant heat production, enhanced by cAMP. Recent evidence strongly supports the idea that the PRDM16 gene determines BAT identity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. nutritionreviews@ilsi.org
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wolf
mesh_terms: D017667:Adipocytes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D050156:Adipogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000502:physiology; D002001:Adipose Tissue, Brown / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics; D002460:Cell Line; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000502:physiology; D022722:Thermogenesis; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C416371:PRDM16 protein, human; C521133:Prdm16 protein, mouse; D014157:Transcription Factors