Abstract
Obesity is a leading health problem facing the modern world; however, no effective therapy for this health issue has yet been developed. A promising research direction to identify novel therapies to prevent obesity has emerged from discoveries on development and function of brown/brite adipocytes in mammals. Importantly, there is evidence for the presence and function of active thermogenic brown adipocytes in both infants and adult humans. Several new investigations have shown that thermogenic adipocytes are beneficial to maintain glucose homeostasis, insulin sensitivity, and a healthy body fat content. Such thermogenic adipocytes have been considered as targets to develop a therapy for preventing obesity. This short review seeks to highlight recent findings on the development and function of brown/brite adipocytes in humans and to discuss potential treatments based on these adipocytes to reduce obesity and its related disorders.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Dr. Leslie P. Kozak (Maine Medical Center Research Institute, USA) for critical reading and helpful comments to improve this manuscript before submitting.
Dinh-Toi Chu is a current Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoc under the Scientia Fellows programme cofunded by Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo and the EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) under Marie S. Curie scheme—People: Cofunding of Regional, National and International Programmes (COFUND), grant agreement no. 609020.
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Chu, DT., Tao, Y. Human thermogenic adipocytes: a reflection on types of adipocyte, developmental origin, and potential application. J Physiol Biochem 73, 1–4 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13105-016-0536-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13105-016-0536-y