Transplantation of Committed Pre-adipocytes from Brown Adipose Tissue improves Whole-body Glucose Homeostasis
Obesity and its co-morbidities including type 2 diabetes are increasing at epidemic rates in the U.S. and worldwide. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a potential therapeutic to combat obesity and type 2 diabetes. Increasing BAT mass by transplantation improves metabolic health in rodents, but its clinical translation remains a challenge. Here, we investigated if transplantation of 2-4 million differentiated brown pre-adipocytes from mouse BAT stromal fraction (SVF) or human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) could improve metabolic health. Transplantation of differentiated brown pre-adipocytes, termed 'committed pre-adipocytes' from BAT SVF from mice or derived from hPSCs improves glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity in recipient mice under conditions of diet-induced obesity, and this improvement is mediated through the collaborative actions of the liver transcriptome, tissue AKT signaling and FGF21. These data demonstrate that transplantation of a small number of brown adipocytes has significant long-term translational and therapeutic potential to improve glucose metabolism. Overall design: Transplantation of differentiated pre-adipocytes from stromal fraction of brown adipose tissue into high-fat diet fed recipient mice using silk scaffolds to determine metabolic changes, including changes to liver transcriptome