BROWN ADIPOSE TISSUE AND HUMAN OBESITY

  • Francine Naiara Broetto Universidade Estadual de Maringá - UEM
  • Márcia Nascimento Brito Universidade Estadual de Maringá - UEM
Keywords: Obesity, White adipose tissue, Brown adipose tissue, Thermogenesis.

Abstract

Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) is highly relevant for the thermogenic response and energy equilibrium in small mammals. BAT induction in rats causes loss of energy, reduces adiposity and protects them from diet-induced obesity. Obesity is a challenge for public health since it is a disease and a risk factor for a number of other diseases. Excess of calories taken trigger a rise in lipid concentrations in the blood circulation. A method that limits the release of fat acids into the blood current and mitigates their collateral systemic effects consists in storing them in the white fat cells. BAT activation or the conversion of white adipocytes into brown ones may be an interesting therapy in the treatment of obesity. BAT has been reported in human adults under circumstances of chronic exposure to cold or through adrenergic hyperexciteness. Further, its activity is less in overweight or obese subjects when compared to that in lean ones. This fact indicates that reduced activity of brown fat in some subjects would predispose them to obesity. Current review provides the most recent information with regard to the presence and functioning of BAT in humans from studies of images of positrons emission tomography (PET) with the collection of radioactive fluordeoxylglucose (FDG). These studies provide new perspectives for the development of drugs and therapies that may activate BAT and reduce obesity and the diseases associated with it in humans.

Author Biographies

Francine Naiara Broetto, Universidade Estadual de Maringá - UEM
Especialista em Fisiologia Humana pelo Departamento de Ciências Fisiológicas da Universidade Estadual de Maringá - UEM; E-mail: f.broetto@gmail.com
Márcia Nascimento Brito, Universidade Estadual de Maringá - UEM
Docente do Departamento de Ciências Fisiológicas da Universidade Estadual de Maringá – UEM; E-mail: mnbrito@uem.br
Published
2012-03-19
Section
Artigos de Revisão