Evidence for the Mediatory Role of Brown Adipose Tissue During Nonshivering Thermogenesis in the Cold-Acclimated Mouse

Abstract

The increased rate of oxygen consumption by cold-acclimated, adult mice after subcutaneous injection of noradrenaline has been measured for intact individuals and for those with the arterial supply to their interscapular brown adipose tissue ligated. An immediate reduction of 40% of this calorigenic response was noted in mice thus operated. Dissection of the total brown fat of the body indicated that the interscapular deposits comprise 43% by weight of the total brown adipose tissue, which in turn forms only 1% of the body weight. Since a 40% reduction in calorigenic response to noradrenaline cannot be ascribed to the loss of an amount of brown fat constituting less than 0.5%) of the body weight, the results support the hypothesis that brown fat can mediate calorigenic responses of other tissues.