Looking on the “brite” side exercise-induced browning of white adipose tissue
Abstract
The need for effective and convenient ways of combatting obesity has created great interest in brown adipose tissue (BAT). However, because adult humans have relatively little amounts of BAT, the possibility of browning white adipose tissue (WAT), i.e., switching the metabolism of WAT from an energy storing to energy burning organ, has gained considerable attention. Exercise has countless health benefits, and has consistently been shown to cause browning in rodent white adipose tissue. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of recent studies examining the effects of exercise and other interventions on the browning of white adipose tissue. The role of various endocrine factors, including catecholamines, interleukin-6, irisin, and meteorin-like in addition to local re-esterification-mediated mechanisms in inducing the browning of WAT will be discussed. The physiological importance of browning will be discussed, as will discrepancies in the literature between human and rodent studies.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A second hypothesis posits that exercise reduces body insulation by decreasing adipocyte size and lipid content in scAT and thus activates thermogenic processes to increase body temperature as a compensatory mechanism.
“A second hypothesis posits that exercise reduces body insulation by decreasing adipocyte size and lipid content in scAT and thus activates thermogenic processes to increase body temperature as a compensatory mechanism [16,79].”
By inducing WAT browning, exercise increases total-body capacity to oxidize FFAs, thereby counteracting ectopic lipid accumulation.
“Thus, by inducing WAT browning, exercise increases the total-body capacity to oxidize FFAs, thereby counteracting ectopic lipid accumulation [79].”
Most studies have not found evidence of WAT browning when applying various types and durations of exercise interventions.
“Most studies have not found evidence of WAT browning when applying various types and durations of exercise interventions [79].”
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 121 · Cited by 44
- Authors
- Townsend, L. K., & Wright, D. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Guelph (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Wright, David C.
- Venue
- Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology
- Published
- 2018-07-07
- Volume
- 471
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 455-465
- ISSN
- 0031-6768 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-2013
- OpenAlex
- W2882756499
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 121
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 0.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Canada Research Chairs
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Adipose Tissue and Metabolism
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Adipokines, Inflammation, and Metabolic Diseases
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiovascular Disease and Adiposity
- Keywords
- white adipose tissue, brown adipose tissue, thermogenesis, obesity, catecholamines, interleukin-6, irisin, meteorin-like, re-esterification
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Adipose Tissue, Brown, Energy Metabolism, Humans, Obesity, Physical Conditioning, Animal, Exercise, Adipose Tissue, White
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
