Brown adipose tissue of mice with GTG-induced obesity: altered circadian control

The effect of feeding a "cafeteria" diet and of feeding a restricted amount of chow on brown adipose tissue (BAT) of lean and gold thioglucose (GTG)-obese mice was studied at various times of the day and night. Objectives were to find out 1) whether our previous finding of diet-induced growth of BAT of the GTG-obese mouse without thermogenic activation could be explained by a transient stimulation at a time of day not studied and 2) whether lack of stimulation of BAT thyroxine 5'-deiodinase (TD) by diet seen previously in lean mice and rats could be explained by a transient increase at times of day not studied. A transient activation of BAT thermogenesis, indicated by an increase in mitochondrial GDP binding, occurs immediately after cafeteria food is presented to the GTG-obese mouse, but the effect of diet is absent at other times. This transient stimulation of BAT in the GTG-obese mouse may be sufficient to produce the tissue growth observed. A circadian rhythm in GDP binding occurred in both lean and obese mice, whether they were eating chow or the cafeteria diet. Restricted feeding suppressed BAT mitochondrial GDP binding in lean mice but did not suppress any further the low level in GTG-obese mice. A circadian rhythm in TD activity in BAT also occurred in lean and obese mice, but no effect of cafeteria diet or of restricted feeding on this enzyme was detected at any time of day, except for a brief increase in obese mice at 0500.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)