The function of brown adipose tissue at different sites of the body in Brandt's voles during cold acclimation

Enkhbat Undrakhbayar; Xue-Ying Zhang; Chen-Zhu Wang; De-Hua Wang

doi:10.1016/j.cbpa.2024.111655

The function of brown adipose tissue at different sites of the body in Brandt's voles during cold acclimation

Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 2024 May 7:295:111655. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2024.111655. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Enkhbat Undrakhbayar¹, Xue-Ying Zhang², Chen-Zhu Wang¹, De-Hua Wang³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Biotic Interactions, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Biotic Interactions, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: zhangxy@ioz.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Biotic Interactions, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China. Electronic address: dehuawang@sdu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38723743
DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2024.111655

Abstract

Ambient temperatures have great impacts on thermoregulation of small mammals. Brown adipose tissue (BAT), an obligative thermogenic tissue for small mammals, is localized not only in the interscapular depot (iBAT), but also in supraclavicular, infra/subscapular, cervical, paravertebral, and periaortic depots. The iBAT is known for its cold-induced thermogenesis, however, less has been paid attention to the function of BAT at other sites. Here, we investigated the function of BAT at different sites of the body during cold acclimation in a small rodent species. As expected, Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii) consumed more food and reduced the body mass gain when they were exposed to cold. The voles increased resting metabolic rate and maintained a relatively lower body temperature in the cold (36.5 ± 0.27 °C) compared to those in the warm condition (37.1 ± 0.36 °C). During cold acclimation, the uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) increased in aBAT (axillary), cBAT (anterior cervical), iBAT (interscapular), nBAT (supraclavicular), and sBAT (suprascapular). The levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a marker for cell proliferation, were higher in cBAT and iBAT in the cold than in the warm group. The pAMPK/AMPK and pCREB/CREB were increased in cBAT and iBAT during cold acclimation, respectively. These data indicate that these different sites of BAT play the cold-induced thermogenic function for small mammals.

Keywords: Brandt's vole (Lasiopodomys brandtii); Brown adipose tissue (BAT); Different sites of BAT; Metabolic rate; Uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1).