Dietary Factors Promoting Brown and Beige Fat Development and Thermogenesis - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

Dietary Factors Promoting Brown and Beige Fat Development and Thermogenesis

Meshail Okla et al. Adv Nutr. 2017.

Abstract

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a specialized fat tissue that has a high capacity to dissociate cellular respiration from ATP utilization, resulting in the release of stored energy as heat. Adult humans possess a substantial amount of BAT in the form of constitutively active brown fat or inducible beige fat. BAT activity in humans is inversely correlated with adiposity, blood glucose concentrations, and insulin sensitivity; this suggests that strategies aimed at BAT-mediated bioenergetics are an attractive therapeutic target in combating the continuing epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Despite advances in knowledge regarding the developmental lineage and transcriptional regulators of brown and beige adipocytes, our current understanding of environmental modifiers of BAT thermogenesis, such as diet, is limited. In this review, we consolidated the latest research on dietary molecules that may serve to promote BAT thermogenesis. Here, we summarized the thermogenic function of selected phytochemicals (e.g., capsaicin, resveratrol, curcumin, green tea, and berberine), dietary fatty acids (e.g., fish oil and conjugated linoleic acids), and all-trans retinoic acid, a vitamin A metabolite. We also delineated the proposed mechanisms whereby these dietary molecules promote BAT activity and/or browning of white adipose tissue. Characterizing thermogenic dietary factors may offer novel insight into revising nutritional intervention strategies aimed at obesity and diabetes prevention and management.

Keywords: UCP1; WAT browning; beige adipocytes; brown adipocyte; dietary molecule; thermogenesis.

© 2017 American Society for Nutrition.

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Conflict of interest statement

2: Author disclosures: M Okla, J Kim, K Koehler, and S Chung, no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 1

Thermogenic dietary molecules and potential mechanisms of action. At least 3 distinct metabolic responses may occur upon thermogenic stimuli, including the following: 1) an increase in BAT activity in pre-existing classical brown adipocytes; 2) the metabolic switch of some, if not all, existing white adipocytes to beige adipocytes in subcutaneous fat (WAT browning); and 3) new beige adipocyte formation from adipogenic progenitor cells. There are multiple and overlapping signaling pathways that are involved in stimulating BAT activation by dietary molecules. In this review, we summarized the several known dietary molecules that function to trigger thermogenic responses via mechanisms that include the following: 1) ADRB3 activation through the TRPV1 channel and the SNS by capsaicin, EGCG, and EPA; 2) epigenetic modification such as histone deacetylation by resveratrol or microRNA biogenesis by EPA; 3) AMPK/PGC1α signaling leading to mitochondrial biogenesis by resveratrol, curcumin, EGCG, EPA, and berberine; 4) thermogenic cytokine secretion of LCN2 by ATRA-RAR signaling; and 5) the anti-inflammatory function of these molecules by resveratrol, EGCG, EPA, and berberine. ADRB3, β3-adrenergic receptor; AMPK, AMP-activated protein kinase; ATRA, all-trans retinoic acid; BAT, brown adipose tissue; EGCG, epigallocatechin gallate; LCN2, lipocalin 2; NE, norepinephrine; PGC1α, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha; PRDM16, PR domain-containing 16; RAR, retinoic acid receptor; RXR, retinoid X receptor; SNS, sympathetic nervous system; TRPV, transient receptor potential vanilloid; WAT, white adipose tissue.

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