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BAT is independently affected by peripheral and central pathways

International Journal of Obesity volume 42, page 584 (2018)Cite this article

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Pino et al.1 present results on orexin-A effects in human brown adipose tissue (BAT). Activation of orexin/hypocretin receptors has been suggested as one possible way of increasing human BAT mass, based on experiments in rats and mice. As adult humans and rodents are much different with respect to BAT, it is important to extend the studies to man. The results of Pino et al. are thus very interesting, but some conclusions are rather far-fetched and raise confusion.

Orexin signaling has been proposed to play a dual role for BAT in rodents. First, placentally produced orexin has been proposed to be essential for the prenatal development of functional BAT, and even later in life stimulate its maintenance and recovery.2, 3 Second, orexinergic neurons of the hypothalamus project to brain stem nuclei, where they stimulate neurons projecting to BAT.4, 5, 6, 7 The peripheral and central orexin effects are completely independent, but get tangled up in the paper by Pino et al.1 It is essential to recognize that orexin stimulation of BAT activity in rats does not require expression of orexin receptors in BAT, as the brain stem projections to BAT are not orexinergic.8

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References

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  1. Department of Veterinary Biosciences, and Department of Physiology, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine, Biomedicum Helsinki, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    J P Kukkonen

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Correspondence to J P Kukkonen.

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Kukkonen, J. BAT is independently affected by peripheral and central pathways. Int J Obes 42, 584 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.221

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