Transcriptional control of brown adipocyte development and physiological function—of mice and men

Patrick Seale; Shingo Kajimura; Bruce M. Spiegelman

doi:10.1101/gad.1779209

Transcriptional control of brown adipocyte development and physiological function—of mice and men

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA

Abstract

The last several years have seen an explosion of information relating to the transcriptional control of brown fat cell development. At the same time, new data have emerged that clearly demonstrate that adult humans do indeed have substantial amounts of functioning brown adipose tissue (BAT). Together, these advances are stimulating a reassessment of the role of brown adipose tissue in human physiology and pathophysiology. These data have also opened up exciting new opportunities for the development of entirely novel classes of therapeutics for metabolic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes.

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Footnotes

↵1 Corresponding author.

↵E-MAIL bruce_spiegelman{at}dfci.harvard.edu; FAX (617) 632-5363.
Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1779209.