Initiation of myoblast to brown fat switch by a PRDM16–C/EBP-β transcriptional complex

Shingo Kajimura, Patrick Seale, Kazuishi Kubota, Elaine Lunsford, John V. Frangioni, Steven P. Gygi and Bruce M. Spiegelman ()
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Shingo Kajimura: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,
Patrick Seale: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,
Kazuishi Kubota: Harvard Medical School, 44 Binney Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Elaine Lunsford: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
John V. Frangioni: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
Steven P. Gygi: Harvard Medical School, 44 Binney Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Bruce M. Spiegelman: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,

Nature, 2009, vol. 460, issue 7259, 1154-1158

Abstract: Brown fat and obesity Brown fat tissue can act to counteract obesity, by burning calories to produce heat, whereas white fat acts as an energy store. Bruce Spiegelman and colleagues reported in Nature last year that brown fat cells are closely related to skeletal muscle, and that the protein PRDM16 can instruct muscle stem cells to become brown fat cells. Now from the same lab comes the finding that PRDM16 works together with C/EBP-β and that expression of this transcriptional unit is sufficient to induce a fully functional brown fat in naive fibroblasts. Transplantation of such fibroblasts into mice creates a brown fat pad that acts as a sink for glucose. This work could lead to new approaches to controlling metabolic disorders such as obesity and type-2 diabetes.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08262

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