Growing evidence demonstrates the metabolic benefits of repeated cold exposure in humans. Here, we argue that skeletal muscle thermogenesis, rather than the stimulation of thermogenic adipose tissue, is required to elicit these benefits in humans.
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Acknowledgements
The authors receive support from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (L.K.T. and D.C.W.) and Michael DeGroote Fellowship (L.K.T.). D.P.B. receives grant support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Canada; RGPIN-2019-05813), holds the GSK Chair in Diabetes of the Université de Sherbrooke and a Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Santé (FRQS) J1 salary award.
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L.K.T., D.W., D.C.W. and D.P.B. wrote the manuscript. L.K.T. and D.P.B. generated the original version of the figure.
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Nature Metabolism thanks Colleen M Novak, Eric Ravussin and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Townsend, L.K., Wang, D., Wright, D.C. et al. Skeletal muscle, not adipose tissue, mediates cold-induced metabolic benefits. Nat Metab 5, 1074–1077 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-023-00837-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-023-00837-4
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