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Recent advances in brown adipose tissue biology

  • Review
  • Cell Biology
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

In mammals, white adipose tissue (WAT) store energy, whereas brown adipose tissue (BAT) burns energy. As a thermogenic organ, BAT can help maintain body temperature during cold exposure. Owing to its important roles in energy metabolism and regulating triacylglycerol levels, BAT has received great attention in treating obesity and its related diseases. Recent studies have suggested that BAT may secrete factor(s)—batokines—to regulate whole-body energy metabolism. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in the formation and function of BAT, as well as molecules that regulate the activity of BAT and beige fat.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the One Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012CBA01301 and 2012CB944701), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81370951, 31171131) and the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJZD-EW-L01-3) to Wanzhu Jin.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Yanyan Shen

  2. Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yanyan Shen, Xiaomeng Liu, Meng Dong, Jun Lin, Qianwei Zhao, HyuekJong Lee & Wanzhu Jin

  3. The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiaomeng Liu, Meng Dong, Jun Lin & Qianwei Zhao

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  1. Yanyan Shen
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  2. Xiaomeng Liu
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  3. Meng Dong
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  4. Jun Lin
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  5. Qianwei Zhao
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  6. HyuekJong Lee
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  7. Wanzhu Jin
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Correspondence to Wanzhu Jin.

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Yanyan Shen and Xiaomeng Liu have contributed equally to this work.

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Shen, Y., Liu, X., Dong, M. et al. Recent advances in brown adipose tissue biology. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 4030–4040 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0386-3

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