Brown fat refers to a type of fat tissue in our bodies that helps to generate heat and burn calories. It is called "brown" because it contains more mitochondria, which are responsible for producing heat, compared to "white" fat.
Brown fat is commonly found in babies and hibernating animals as a way to stay warm, and researchers believe it may play a role in regulating our body weight.
Full definition
In a mice experiment, the amount of
brown fat cells in older mice was maintained at almost the level equivalent to that of younger mice.
It found that when the mercury fell to 32 °C, it triggered the production
of brown fat cells.
Why it works is not entirely clear, but previous animal studies suggest it may increase the amount of calories burned
in brown fat tissue.
Turning white fat
into brown fat is a very exciting new approach to developing weight loss agents.
This led in the former to a conversion of white fat into energy -
burning brown fat, and in the latter to an enhancement of their anti-inflammatory properties.
Scientists have discovered a protein that
activates brown fat in the body, potentially providing a means to fight obesity and keep the weight off.
After this mild cold exposure, all ten volunteers with type 2 diabetes, as shown in that study, displayed increased
brown fat activity and improved insulin sensitivity.
Higher activity of
brown fat tissue has been associated with a lower body fat content in humans (9).
This assists in weight gain by limiting
brown fat stored in baby burns by working to cool down or stay warm.
The problem, however, has been finding a viable approach to
stimulating brown fat production that doesn't merely involve prolonged exposure to cold environments.
As brown fat cells burn stored fat, the more of them you have, the more calories you burn overall.
In addition, thyroid hormone turns up the thermostat
on brown fat, which is a specialized type of fat that generates heat.
Similarly, it is conceivable that patients with obesity could use the high rate of energy combustion
through brown fat to melt away their excess weight — at least to a certain extent.
«Force» the weight to come
from brown fat stores, and not from muscle.
Human babies are born
with brown fat as a natural defense against cold.
The effect might be less dramatic in humans as we are less efficient at
making brown fat.
As several previous studies have already shown, women more frequently have
active brown fat than men.
Because brown fat burns calories, scientists have been searching for a way to harness it to fight obesity and obesity - related diabetes.
Food frequency can
affect brown fat to either increase or decrease fat - burning.
The trial was not designed to shed light on the question of whether the drug also can help to create
new brown fat cells.
Whilst PET does
show brown fat activity, it is subject to a number of limitations including the challenge of signal variability from a changing environmental temperature.
This hormone makes the unhealthy excess fat and even deep fat act
like brown fat.
However, scientists do not completely understand
how brown fat carries out its functions both in health and disease, in part because of the lack of an appropriate animal model.
The discovery opens the door to research that might lead to new ways of
using brown fat to treat metabolic conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes in the future.
Studies have indicated that
most brown fat in mice is on the back, between the shoulder blades.
Up to now, it was thought that
brown fat only occurred in newborn babies and was lost with age.
These studies have also shown that people with obesity have
less brown fat than lean people.
However, he points out, many hurdles remain, including the fact that human fatty tissue has
few brown fat cells.
We are all born with supplies of
brown fat around our necks, nature's way of helping to keep us warm as infants.
A small study earlier this year suggested that long - term exposure to cold may
spur brown fat growth, while warmth appeared to suppress it.
The cold activates to
growth brown fat tissue, which has positive issue for fight against obesity.
Other experiments have shown that
when brown fat is dysfunctional or absent, mice decrease their energy expenditure and become obese.
Furthermore,
brown fat does not react with the same level of activity in overweight individuals or in the elderly.
With a reduction of these hormones, their bodies
preserve brown fat (healthy fat babies are born with), helping to maintain birth weight and keep a warm body temperature.
In a study of rats, long - term melatonin consumption appeared to alter the white - to -
brown fat ratio in thin subjects.
New research shows that
brown fat offers some unique benefits for the human organism.
In a normal state, body temperature is controlled by normal physical activity,
leaving brown fat «quiet».
It was concluded that
brown fat derives from a precursor cell found in skeletal muscles.