Identification and characterization of a supraclavicular brown adipose tissue in mice

Authors: MO, QIANXING - Baylor College Of Medicine; SALLEY, JORDAN - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); ROSHAN, TONY - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); BAER, LISA - The Ohio State University; MAY, FRANCIS - The Ohio State University; JAEHNIG, ERIC - Rice University; LEHNIG, ADAM - The Ohio State University; GUO, XIN - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); TONG, QIANG - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); NUOTIO-ANTAR, ALLI - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); SHAMSI, FARNAZ - Harvard Medical School; TSENG, YU-HUA - Harvard Medical School; STANFORD, KRISTIN - The Ohio State University; CHEN, MIAO-HSUEH - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: Journal of Clinical Investigation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/20/2017
Publication Date: 6/2/2017
Citation: Mo, Q., Salley, J., Roshan, T., Baer, L.A., May, F.J., Jaehnig, E.J., Lehnig, A.C., Guo, X., Tong, Q., Nuotio-Antar, A.M., Shamsi, F., Tseng, Y., Stanford, K.I., Chen, M. 2017. Identification and characterization of a supraclavicular brown adipose tissue in mice. Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight (JCI Insight). 2(11):1-14. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.93166.

Interpretive Summary: Brown fat that burns fat and sugar to generate heat can maintain body temperature in cold weather. The discovery of brown fat in the neck of healthy adult humans raises the possibility that brown fat can be used to potentially counteract obesity. In order to develop brown fat-based therapies, we need to better understand how brown fat forms and functions by studying an experimentally-manipulable animal model. In this paper, we characterize a previously unknown brown fat tissue in the mouse neck that is similar to human brown fat. Our studies, therefore, provide a unique animal model for studying human brown fat and the effect of nutritional status on its function.

Technical Abstract: A fundamental challenge to our understanding of brown adipose tissue (BAT) is the lack of an animal model that faithfully represents human BAT. Such a model is essential for direct assessment of the function and therapeutic potential of BAT depots in humans. In human adults, most of the thermoactive BAT depots are located in the supraclavicular region of the neck, while mouse studies focus on depots located in the interscapular region of the torso. We recently discovered BAT depots that are located in a region analogous to that of human supraclavicular BAT (scBAT). Here, we report that the mouse scBAT depot has morphological characteristics of classical BAT, possesses the potential for high thermogenic activity, and expresses a gene signature that is similar to that of human scBAT. Taken together, our studies reveal a mouse BAT depot that represents human BAT and provides a unique tool for developing new translatable approaches for utilizing human scBAT.