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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Differentiation and Imaging of Brown Adipocytes from the Stromal Vascular Fraction of Interscapular Adipose Tissue from Newborn Mice
Published on: February 3, 2023
Brown adipose tissue: the molecular mechanism of its formation
1Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. nutritionreviews@ilsi.org
Abstract:
The function of brown adipose tissue (BAT) is to oxidize fat and to dissipate the energy produced as heat, providing a source of heat to the organism. Preadipocytes are stimulated by expression of the PRDM16 gene to differentiate into BAT cells. The PRDM16 protein is greatly enriched in BAT and causes increased expression of mitochondrial genes and greater density of mitochondria. It increases expression of the uncoupling factor UCP1 and thereby causes a large stimulation of uncoupled respiration with resultant heat production, enhanced by cAMP. Recent evidence strongly supports the idea that the PRDM16 gene determines BAT identity.
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