Thermogenesis in Brown Adipose Tissue as an Energy Buffer

Abstract

DESPITE extensive research on many aspects of obesity, only recently have investigators begun to understand why some persons remain lean for years with no effort to control food intake, whereas others become obese in spite of strenuous efforts to limit intake. In the past few years, studies with laboratory animals have provided an explanation for such large individual variations in energy requirements and have shown that brown adipose tissue buffers changes in food intake.^{1 2 3 4} When appropriately stimulated, brown adipose tissue dissipates, as heat, energy derived from ingested food. Two types of external stimulus trigger thermogenesis: exposure to cold (that is, . . .