Researchers Adjust the Regulation of Declining Beige Fat Production with Age
Brown fat and beige fat are involved in generating heat, while white fat is not. In white fat deposits, some fraction of fat cells become beige, behaving like brown fat in generating heat. That fraction increases in a cold environment. Because of this direction of energy towards heat production, and related behavior of beige fat cells, having a greater proportion of beige fat rather than white fat is metabolically favorable in this era of excess calories and metabolic disorders. With age, there is less beneficial production of beige fat and more production of white fat tissue, however. Researchers are thus interested in finding a way to bias the body towards beige fat production, or at least reduce the loss of beige fat with age. It is unclear as to whether such an approach can be any better than exercise and diet, but that can be said for most of the research programs intended to produce interventions into aspects of aging at the present time.
Perivascular adipocyte progenitor cells (APCs) can generate cold temperature-induced thermogenic beige adipocytes within white adipose tissue (WAT), an effect that could counteract excess fat mass and metabolic pathologies. Yet, the ability to generate beige adipocytes declines with age, creating a key challenge for their therapeutic potential. Here we show that ageing beige APCs overexpress platelet derived growth factor receptor beta (Pdgfrβ) to prevent beige adipogenesis. We show that genetically deleting Pdgfrβ, in adult male mice, restores beige adipocyte generation whereas activating Pdgfrβ in juvenile mice blocks beige fat formation.
Mechanistically, we find that Stat1 phosphorylation mediates Pdgfrβ beige APC signaling to suppress IL-33 induction, which dampens immunological genes such as IL-13 and IL-5. Moreover, pharmacologically targeting Pdgfrβ signaling restores beige adipocyte development by rejuvenating the immunological niche. Thus, targeting Pdgfrβ signaling could be a strategy to restore WAT immune cell function to stimulate beige fat in adult mammals.
A lot of claims online that standing in a cryotherapy chamber on a regular basis will produce brown/ beige fat. Any good research there?