A direct tissue-grafting approach to increasing endogenous brown fat.

ABSTRACT: There is widespread evidence that increasing functional mass of brown adipose tissue (BAT) via browning of white adipose tissue (WAT) could potentially counter obesity and diabetes. However, most current approaches focus on administration of pharmacological compounds which expose patients to highly undesirable side effects. Here, we describe a simple and direct tissue-grafting approach to increase BAT mass through ex vivo browning of subcutaneous WAT, followed by re-implantation into the host; this cell-therapy approach could potentially act synergistically with existing pharmacological approaches. With this process, entitled "exBAT", we identified conditions, in both mouse and human tissue, that convert whole fragments of WAT to BAT via a single step and without unwanted off-target pharma

SUBMITTER: Blumenfeld NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5962549 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature