Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Brown adipose tissue is a unique organ that has the capacity of generating heat. Once activated, brown adipocytes up take important amounts of fat and sugar. During physiological changes such as obesity and aging, certain brown adipocytes fill up with fat, are less active and take the appearance of white adipocytes. These modifications are thought to contribute to the apparition of the metabolic disorders linked to obesity and aging. Factors contributing to this differentiation remain unknown. Dr Scherer team recently unveiled that brown adipose tissue is composed of two different populations of brown adipocytes. This proposal aims to characterize these two populations from a transcriptional and a metabolical point of view. By using transgenic mouse models unique to Dr Scherer team; it will be possible to identify the two subpopulations of brown adipocytes. These populations will be compared to one another in order to identify their gene expression fingerprint and to evaluate their metabolic status, allowing us to determine which population differentiate into less active, lipid laden brown adipocytes. The proposed study will prove the heterogeneity of brown adipose tissue and identify a subpopulation of brown adipocyte that undergoes deleterious transformations in obesity and aging. By identifying the unique signature of these adipocytes, pharmacological tools could be design to prevent their decrease in activity, hence preserving brown adipose tissue function in obesity and in aging. The results generated by this proposition will support the research for brown adipose tissue activation in the treatment of metabolic diseases.