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Brown fat’s protective qualities could help battle obesity, diabetes
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Higher levels of brown adipose tissue boost glucose control, improve insulin sensitivity and increase fat-burning metabolism, according to research published in Diabetes.
The findings from a study at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston are the first to demonstrate brown fat could be a force in fighting the obesity and diabetes epidemics.
“Our data suggest that brown adipose tissue has the potential to function as an anti-obesity and anti-diabetic tissue in humans,” Labros Sidossis, MD, of the Shriners Hospital for Children, Galveston, Texas, told Endocrine Today.
Labros Sidossis
Maria Chondronikola, MS, RDN, also of Shriners Hospital for Children, along with Sidossis and colleagues, looked at seven men with high levels of brown adipose tissue depots (BAT+) and five men with low levels (BAT–); participants were all middle-aged with similar BMI and adiposity.
The researchers studied the men under thermoneutral conditions, following 5 to 8 hours of cold exposure, to determine whether BAT activation changes whole-body glucose homeostasis.
After exposure, significant increases in resting energy expenditure, whole-body glucose disposal, plasma glucose oxidation and insulin sensitivity were observed only in the BAT+ group.
“When activated, brown adipose tissue acts like exercise, but without the effort,” Sidossis said. “It burns calories and regulates blood glucose by accelerating glucose clearance from plasma and increasing insulin sensitivity.”
More research is needed to understand the effects of chronic BAT activation and the underlying mechanisms to identify safe and effective interventions, the researchers wrote. These could be lifestyle or pharmaceutical interventions and potentially activate BAT in an organism or encourage browning of white adipose tissue.
“Small changes in environmental conditions are able to activate brown fat,” Sidossis said. “However, the development of drugs that will be able to activate BAT will enable the use of this tissue as a therapeutic target in the battle against obesity and insulin resistance.” — by Allegra Tiver
For more information:
Sidossis can be reached at Shriners Hospitals for Children, Galveston, 815 Market St., Room 618, Galveston, TX 77555-0177; email: lasidoss@UTMB.EDU.
Disclosure: Please see the study for full list of researchers’ financial disclosures.
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