Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 May 25:12:652246.
doi: 10.3389/fendo.2021.652246. eCollection 2021.

The Role of Brown Adipose Tissue Dysfunction in the Development of Cardiovascular Disease

Affiliations
Review

The Role of Brown Adipose Tissue Dysfunction in the Development of Cardiovascular Disease

Hong-Jin Chen et al. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Brown adipose tissue (BAT), consisted of brown adipocytes and stromal vascular fraction, which includes endothelial cells, lymphocytes, fibroblasts and stem cells, plays a vital role in regulating cardiovascular health and diseases. As a thermogenic organ, BAT can influence body through strengthening energy expenditure by promoting glucose and lipid metabolism. In addition, BAT is also an endocrine organ which is able to secret adipokines in an autocrine and/or paracrine fashion. BAT plays a protective role in cardiovascular system through attenuating cardiac remodeling and suppressing inflammatory response. In this review, we summarize the advances from the discovery of BAT to the present and provide an overview on the role of BAT dysfunction in cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: adipocyte; adipokines; brown adipose tissue; cardiovascular diseases; obesity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The protective efforts of BAT on vessels and heart. Activated BAT, including classic BAT and the BAT derived from the browning of beige adipocytes under the condition of cold exposure, beta-adrenaline stimulation and so on, plays a protective role through its metabolic function and secretion function, which leads to decreased inflammation, decreased oxidative stress response and increased HDL, increased uptake of glucose and so on. And all of these contribute to cardiovascular health and vice versa.

References

    1. GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators. Afshin A, Forouzanfar MH, Reitsma MB, Sur P, Estep K, et al. . Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity in 195 Countries Over 25 Years. N Engl J Med (2017) 377(1):13–27. 10.1056/NEJMoa1614362 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Després JP, Moorjani S, Lupien PJ, Tremblay A, Nadeau A, Bouchard C. Regional Distribution of Body Fat, Plasma Lipoproteins, and Cardiovascular Disease. Arteriosclerosis (1990) 10(4):497–511. 10.1161/01.atv.10.4.497 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rosen ED, Spiegelman BM. Adipocytes as Regulators of Energy Balance and Glucose Homeostasis. Nature (2006) 444(7121):847–53. 10.1038/nature05483 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hirsch J, Batchelor B. Adipose Tissue Cellularity in Human Obesity. Clin Endocrinol Metab (1976) 5(2):299–311. 10.1016/s0300-595x(76)80023-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Heaton JM. The Distribution of Brown Adipose Tissue in the Human. J Anat (1972) 112(Pt 1):35–9. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms