title: Yes, even human brown fat is on fire!
abstract: That adult humans possess brown fat is now accepted - but is the brown fat metabolically active? Does human brown fat actually combust fat to release heat? In this issue of the JCI, Ouellet et al. demonstrate that metabolism in brown fat really is increased when adult humans are exposed to cold. This boosts the possibility that calorie combustion in brown fat may be of significance for our metabolism and, correspondingly, that the absence of brown fat may increase our proneness to obesity - provided that brown fat becomes activated not only by cold but also through food-related stimuli.
authors.affiliation: The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. barbara.cannon@wgi.su.se
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cannon
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nedergaard
mesh_terms: D002001:Adipose Tissue, Brown / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D003080:Cold Temperature; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D022722:Thermogenesis / Q000502:physiology*