Mechanisms of Impaired Brown Adipose Tissue Recruitment in Obesity

[helvella]

To begin with, not obviously thyroid-related - but quite clearly two issues of hypothyroidism could very well be directly connected. Feeling cold and gaining weight (or difficulty losing weight).

If you are interested, hope you enjoy reading. But don't feel it is essential to understand every little bit - nor to read it at all!

Mini Review ARTICLE

Front. Physiol., 13 February 2019 | doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019....

Mechanisms of Impaired Brown Adipose Tissue Recruitment in Obesity

Martín Alcalá1, María Calderon-Dominguez2,3, Dolors Serra2,3*, Laura Herrero2,3* and Marta Viana1*

1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad San Pablo-CEU, CEU Universities, Madrid, Spain

2Department of Biochemistry and Physiology, School of Pharmacy, Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

3Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y la Nutrición (CIBEROBN), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) dissipates energy to produce heat. Thus, it has the potential to regulate body temperature by thermogenesis. For the last decade, BAT has been in the spotlight due to its rediscovery in adult humans. This is evidenced by over a hundred clinical trials that are currently registered to target BAT as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of metabolic diseases, such as obesity or diabetes. The goal of most of these trials is to activate the BAT thermogenic program via several approaches such as adrenergic stimulation, natriuretic peptides, retinoids, capsinoids, thyroid hormones, or glucocorticoids. However, the impact of BAT activation on total body energy consumption and the potential effect on weight loss is still limited. Other studies have focused on increasing the mass of thermogenic BAT. This can be relevant in obesity, where the activity and abundance of BAT have been shown to be drastically reduced. The aim of this review is to describe pathological processes associated with obesity that may influence the correct differentiation of BAT, such as catecholamine resistance, inflammation, oxidative stress, and endoplasmic reticulum stress. This will shed light on the thermogenic potential of BAT as a therapeutic approach to target obesity-induced metabolic diseases.

Full paper freely available here:

frontiersin.org/articles/10...

[AmandaK]

Thanks for this, though I wish I could understand it! I'm particularly interested in the oxidative stress section as Acumen tests carried out to assess mitochondrial function repeatedly show that I have increasing levels of oxidative stress possibly as a result of non-clearance of toxins. (The tests are designed specifically for those of us diagnosed with ME/CFS, which has a thyroid dysfunction element that is not recognised by the medical establishment.)

If anyone could interpret the paper in laypersons terms I'd be very grateful.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to AmandaK]

Afraid it reads to me that the oxidative stress fragment says no-one really understands but there are some ideas floating around...

It is most definitely not an area I feel I can make useful, sensible comments.

[Katurajo1]

This is so interesting and I was actually just reading a different study about brown adipose tissue and melatonin, it’s here if anyone is interested ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/3...

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Katurajo1]

And that link is also very interesting.

I had been unaware of the link between melatonin and brown adipose tissue.

I hope they are now going to go further with that research.

[Katurajo1 in reply to helvella]

Agreed, and since both studies are pretty new it seems likely they will. That is good news for all of us! I just happened to see the melatonin study on another site, so it’s gaining popularity for sure.