Brown Adipose Tissue Transplantation Reverses Obesity in Ob/Ob Mice

Abstract

Increasing evidence indicates that brown adipose tissue (BAT) transplantation enhances whole-body energy metabolism in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity. However, it remains unclear whether BAT also has such beneficial effects on genetically obese mice. To address this issue, we transplanted BAT from C57/BL6 mice into the dorsal subcutaneous region of age- and sex-matched leptin deficient Ob/Ob mice. Interestingly, BAT transplantation led to a significant reduction of body weight gain with increased oxygen consumption and decreased total body fat mass, resulting in improvement of insulin resistance and liver steatosis. In addition, BAT transplantation increased the level of circulating adiponectin, whereas it reduced the levels of circulating free T3 and T4, which regulate thyroid hormone sensitivity in peripheral tissues. BAT transplantation also increased β3-adrenergic receptor and fatty acid oxidation related gene expression in subcutaneous and epididymal (EP) white adipose tissue. Accordingly, BAT transplantation increased whole-body thermogenesis. Taken together our results demonstrate that BAT transplantation may reduce obesity and its related diseases by activating endogenous BAT.