Class Year

2022

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Spring 2022

Abstract

Brown adipose tissue is a metabolically active form of fat in the body that performs a crucial function in non-shivering thermogenesis. It can be compared to the prevalent white adipose tissue which is generally understood to be energy storage in the body, with brown tissue performing an opposing role. The tissue itself contains unique gene and protein markers such as uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) which allows for the thermogenic process inside the cell, burning lipids to do so. These gene and protein markers have proven to be crucial in the detection of brown adipose tissue, which had previously been thought to be lost in humans after early childhood. Activation and proliferation of brown adipose tissue has been linked with acute and chronic cold exposure, diet, obesity, age, and more. Ways to increase or monitor this are of considerable interest to the field of obesity studies. Insight into brown adipose tissue corresponds to insights into further energy expenditure processes in the body in areas such as muscles, potentially offering a wide variety of therapeutic options for obesity treatment.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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