Fuel selection in brown adipose tissue

摘要

The maintenance of a constant body temperature by homeotherms and their survival in a cold environment depend on the ability both to conserve and to generate heat. Thermoregulatory heat is produced by two general mechanisms, shivering (involving contraction of the muscles) and non-shivering thermogenesis. A number of metabolic systems for non-shivering thermogenesis have been proposed (see Trayhurn, 1994), including Na+ pumping across plasma membranes, substrate cycles in specific metabolic pathways,and more recently 'hot pipes' in the vasculature (Colquhoun & Clark, 1991). The best documented mechanism for generating heat by non-shivering thermogenesis is, however, that associated with brown adipose tissue (BAT), or brown fat (see Nicholls & Locke, 1984; Cannon & Nedergaard, 1985; Himms-Hagen, 1989).