Influence of noradrenaline on blood flow to brown adipose tissue in rats exhibiting diet-induced thermogenesis (original) (raw)

• 138 Accesses
• 157 Citations
• Explore all metrics

Abstract

1. 1. The influence of noradrenaline on regional blood flow was determined using radioactive microspheres in rats maintained on either stock diet or a palatable cafeteria diet.
2. 1. Cardiac output and blood flow to brain, lungs, liver and skeletal muscle were similar for rats on the two diets.
3. 1. Blood flow to total dissectable brown adipose tissue in control and cafeteria rats represented 1 and 2% of cardiac output respectively but these values rose to 7 and 15.5% during infusion of noradrenaline.
4. 1. Arterial oxygen content was similar for all groups but the oxygen content of venous blood draining the interscapular brown adipose tissue fell to 6 ml O2/100 ml blood in control rats and 1 ml/100 ml in cafeteria rats after noradrenaline.
5. 1. The total oxygen consumption of brown adipose tissue was calculated and found to account for 42% of the response to noradrenaline in control rats and 74% in cafeteria animals. The increments in the oxygen consumption of other tissues were almost identical in both groups and so all the diet-induced changes in thermogenic capacity can be attributed to increases in brown adipose tissue metabolism.
6. 1. These findings demonstrate the quantitative importance of brown adipose tissue in diet-induced thermogenesis and confirm the similarities between diet and non-shivering thermogenesis.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

• Starting from 10 chapters or articles per month
• Access and download chapters and articles from more than 300k books and 2,500 journals
• Cancel anytime View plans

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

• Brooks SL, Rothwell NJ, Stock MJ (1980) The effects of hypoxia on diet-induced thermogenesis in the rat. J Physiol 303:35P
  Google Scholar
• Brooks SL, Rothwell NJ, Stock MJ, Goodbody AE, Trayhurn P (1980) Increased proton conductance pathway in brown adipose tissue mitochondria of rats exhibiting diet-induced thermogenesis. Nature 286:274–276
  Google Scholar
• Desautels M, Zaror-Behrens G, Himms-Hagen J (1978) Increased purine nucleotide binding, altered polypeptide composition and thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue mitochondria of cold acclimated rats. Can J Biochem 56:378–383
  Google Scholar
• Foster DO, Frydman ML (1978a) Comparison of microspheres and86Rb+ as tracers of the distribution of cardiac output in rats indicates invalidity of86Rb+ based measurements. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 56:97–109
  Google Scholar
• Foster DO, Frydman ML (1978b) Nonshivering thermogenesis in the rat. II measurements of blood flow with microspheres point to brown adipose tissue as the dominant site of the calorignesis induced by noradrenaline. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 56:110–122
  Google Scholar
• Foster DO, Frydman ML (1979) Tissue distribution of cold-induced thermogenesis in conscious warm- or cold-acclimated rats reevaluated from changes in tissue blood flow: The dominant role of brown adipose tissue in the replacement of shivering by nonshivering thermogenesis. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 57:257–270
  Google Scholar
• Hales JRS (1974) Radioactive microsphere techniques for studies of the circulation. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol Suppl 1, 31–46
  Google Scholar
• Hales JRS, King RB, Fawcett AA (1979) Observations on the validity of using ‘NEN-TRAC’ microspheres for measuring organ blood flow. Pflügers Arch 379:295–296
  Google Scholar
• Heymann MA, Payne BD, Hoffman JIE, Rudolf AM (1977) Blood flow measurements with radionuclide-labelled particles. Prog Cardiovasc Dis 20:55–77
  Google Scholar
• Himms-Hagen J, Desautels MA (1978) Mitochondrial defect in binding of purine nucleotides and a failure to respond to cold by an increase in binding. Biochem Biophys Res Comm 83:628–634
  Google Scholar
• Jansky L, Hart JS (1968) Cardiac output and organ blood flow in warm and cold acclimated rats exposed to cold. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 46:653–659
  Google Scholar
• Kuroshima A, Konno NS (1967) Increase in blood flow through brown adipose tissue in response to cold exposure and norepinephrine in the rat. Jpn J Physiol 17:523–537
  Google Scholar
• Nicholls DG (1979) Brown adipose tissue mitochondria. Biochem Biophys Acta 549:1–29
  Google Scholar
• Rothwell NJ, Stock MJ (1979a) A role for brown adipose tissue in diet-induced thermogenesis. Nature 281:31–35
  Google Scholar
• Rothwell NJ, Stock MJ (1979b) Regulation of energy balance in two models of reversible obesity in the rat. J Comp Physiol Psychol 93:1024–10434
  Google Scholar
• Rothwell NJ, Stock MJ (1980) Similarities between cold- and diet-induced thermogenesis in the rat. Can J Physiol Pharmacol 58:842–848
  Google Scholar
• Stock MJ (1975) An automatic, closed-circuit oxygen consumption apparatus for small animals. J Appl Physiol 39:849–850
  Google Scholar
• Sundin U, Cannon B (1980) GDP-binding to the brown fat mitochondria of developing and cold-adapted rats. Comp Biochem Physiol 65 B:463–471
  Google Scholar
• Thurlby PL, Trayhurn P (1978) The development of obesity in preweanling ob/ob mice. Br J Nutr 39:397–402
  Google Scholar
• Thurlby PL, Trayhurn P (1980) Regional blood flow in genetically obese (ob/ob) mice. The importance of brown adipose tissue to the reduced energy expenditure on non-shivering thermogenesis. Pflügers Arch 385:193–201
  Google Scholar
• Trayhurn P, James WPT (1978) Thermoregulation and non-shivering thermogenesis in the genetically obese (ob/ob) mouse. Pflügers Arch 373:189–192
  Google Scholar
• Tsuchiya M, Ferrone RA, Walsh GM, Frohlich ED (1978) Regional blood flows measured in conscious rats by combined Fick and microsphere methods. Am J Physiol 235:H357-H360
  Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Physiology, St. George' Hospital Medical School, Tooting, SW17 ORE, London, UK
   Nancy J. Rothwell & Michael J. Stock

Authors

1. Nancy J. Rothwell
2. Michael J. Stock

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rothwell, N.J., Stock, M.J. Influence of noradrenaline on blood flow to brown adipose tissue in rats exhibiting diet-induced thermogenesis.Pflugers Arch. 389, 237–242 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00584784

Download citation

• Received: 04 July 1980
• Accepted: 25 November 1980
• Issue date: March 1981
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00584784

Key words