Brown and Beige Adipose Tissue: One or Different Targets for Treatment of Obesity and Obesity-Related Metabolic Disorders?

Abstract

The failure of the fight against obesity makes us turn to new goals in its treatment. Now, brown adipose tissue has attracted attention as a promising target for the treatment of obesity and associated metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and glucose tolerance disorders. Meanwhile, the expansion of our knowledge has led to awareness about two rather different subtypes: classic brown and beige (inducible brown) adipose tissue. These subtypes have different origin, differences in the expression of individual genes but also a lot in common. Both tissues are thermogenic, which means that, by increasing energy consumption, they can improve their balance with excess intake. Both tissues are activated in response to specific inducers (cold, beta-adrenergic receptor activation, certain food and drugs), but beige adipose tissue transdifferentiates back into white adipose tissue after the cessation of inducing action, while classic brown adipose tissue persists, but its activity decreases. In this review, we attempted to understand whether there are differences in the effects of different groups of thermogenesis-affecting drugs on these tissues. The analysis showed that this area of research is rather sparse and requires close attention in further studies.

Keywords: beige adipose tissue; brown adipose tissue; genetic pathways of browning; metabolic health; obesity; thermogenesis-affecting drugs.

Figure 1

Origin of brown and beige adipocytes. β3-AR–beta3-adrenoreceptors; DIO2-type 2 deiodinase; PPAR-peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor; FGF21-fibroblast growth factor 21.