Responses of brown adipose tissue activity to unloading in rats

To study the responses of thermogenic activity in brown adipose tissue (BAT) to unloading, male Wistar rats were hindlimb suspended for 10 days. Compared with control rats, a significant increase in the BAT-to-body mass ratio and considerable differences in chemical components in BAT were observed in the hindlimb-suspended rats. These findings indicate a marked increase in the thermogenic capacity in BAT of the experimental group. Likewise, the thermogenic activity (which was assessed by guanosine 5'-diphosphate binding to BAT mitochondria) was markedly greater in the mitochondria recovered from BAT of the hindlimb-suspended rats than in those from the control rats (1,610 +/- 450 vs. 202 +/- 132 pmol recovered). Moreover, the uncoupling protein content in the BAT mitochondrial fraction of the hindlimb-suspended rats was significantly higher (1.6-fold) than that in the control rats. As was expected, the uncoupling protein mRNA expression was greater in hindlimb-suspended rats than in control animals. These results suggest that chronic hindlimb suspension leads to an increase in both the thermogenic capacity and the activity in BAT of rats.