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ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #328561
Title: Identification of a new supraclavicular brown fat depot in mice

Author
item SALLEY, JORDAN - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item MO, QIANXING - Baylor College Of Medicine
item ROSHAN, TONY - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item NUOTIO-ANTAR, ALLI - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item CHEN, MIAO-HSUEH - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Keystone Symposia
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/8/2016
Publication Date: 2/15/2016
Citation: Salley, J., Mo, Q., Nuotio-Antar, A.M., Chen, M. 2016. Identification of a new supraclavicular brown fat depot in mice [abstract]. Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology: Accelerating Life Science Discovery. Poster Session 1, February 15-19, 2016, Banff, Alberta, Canada. p. 44.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The rediscovery of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in healthy adult humans raises the possibility of utilizing BAT to combat obesity and its related metabolic disorders. Adult humans possess limited amounts of BAT with the most thermoactive depot located in the supraclavicular area of the neck. Understanding the molecular and metabolic functions of supraclavicular BAT under normal and pathological conditions requires the use of an animal model. However, the anatomical location of human supraclavicular BAT is completely different from that of interscapular BAT (IBAT), the most studied BAT depot in mice. Since IBAT may not be representative of human supraclavicular BAT, we conducted a comprehensive search for BAT in mice and located a depot in the neck that anatomically resembles the supraclavicular depot found in the humans. Because of its anatomical location, we propose that this depot is the mouse supraclavicular brown adipose tissue (SCBAT) depot. Our preliminary analyses showed that SCBAT weighs less than half of IBAT and is composed of adipocytes that contain multiple lipid droplets and high densities of mitochondria. Genes regulating brown adipogenesis and thermogenesis (ex. UCP1) are highly expressed in SCBAT and at levels similar to those in IBAT without cold stimulation, suggesting that SCBAT is a classical BAT rather than a beige fat depot. To search for new biomarkers for SCBAT in mice, we used RNA-seq to identify over ninety genes that are enriched in SCBAT but not in IBAT and white fat depots. Finally, we found that SCBAT showed a higher degree of adipocyte hypertrophy and lower UCPI expression than IBAT when mice were fed western diet. These results are consistent with observations in humans suggesting that obesity has severe impacts on the mass and activity of human BAT while mouse IBAT is relatively resistant to diet-induced effects. Altogether, these data suggest that this newly identified SCBAT depot may represent a more suitable animal model than IBAT for studying the function of human BAT.