ArticleNature medicine2016
Human 'brite/beige' adipocytes develop from capillary networks, and their implantation improves metabolic homeostasis in mice.
Article in Nature medicine, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 171 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
171 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 306 citations in OpenAlex.
- Thermogenic Differentiation of Human Adipocyte Precursors in Culture: A Systematic Review.Cells · 2025Pooled it
- Enhancing fat graft retention through adipose tissue browning: a systematic review.Stem cell research & therapy · 2025Pooled it
- The β3-adrenergic receptor agonist mirabegron improves glucose homeostasis in obese humans.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2020Trial
- Adipose Tissue Mast Cells Promote Human Adipose Beiging in Response to Cold.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Human adipose beiging in response to cold and mirabegron.JCI insight · 2018Trial
- Intermittent fasting promotes remodeling of neural and vascular networks in visceral white adipose tissue.iScience · 2026Article
- A conserved hormonal signalling-H2A.Z axis rapidly reorganizes 3D chromatin interactions in adipocyte thermogenesis.Nature metabolism · 2026Article
- Transplantation of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibitor-Treated Human Brown Adipocytes Promotes Adipose Tissue Activation in High-Fat-Diet-Fed Nude Mice.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Energy's long game: thermogenic adipocytes and the metabolic diseases of modern life.Academia biology · 2026Article
- Adipose Progenitor Cells in Thermogenesis and Metabolic Regulation.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Review
- Prevotella copri promotes white adipose browning and ameliorates adiposity.Nature communications · 2025Article
- An ultrasound-guided biopsy technique for obtaining supraclavicular brown fat biopsies and preadipocytes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Defining the vascular niche of human adipose tissue across metabolic states.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Adipocyte RNA-binding protein CELF1 promotes beiging of white fat through stabilizing Dio2 mRNA.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise attenuates obesity-induced changes in perivascular adipose tissue in female mice.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Organoid-based tissue engineering for advanced tissue repair and reconstruction.Materials today. Bio · 2025Review
- Commitment of adipose-resident c-kitNature communications · 2025Article
- Brd9 antagonism induces beige adipocytes in white adipose tissues and protects against diet-induced obesity.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Article
- Immune Regulatory Crosstalk in Adipose Tissue Thermogenesis.Comprehensive Physiology · 2025Review
- Emerging debates and resolutions in brown adipose tissue research.Cell metabolism · 2025Review
111 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) is highly expressed in brown adipose tissue, where it generates heat by uncoupling electron transport from ATP production. UCP1 is also found outside classical brown adipose tissue depots, in adipocytes that are termed 'brite' (brown-in-white) or 'beige'. In humans, the presence of brite or beige (brite/beige) adipocytes is correlated with a lean, metabolically healthy phenotype, but whether a causal relationship exists is not clear. Here we report that human brite/beige adipocyte progenitors proliferate in response to pro-angiogenic factors, in association with expanding capillary networks. Adipocytes formed from these progenitors transform in response to adenylate cyclase activation from being UCP1 negative to being UCP1 positive, which is a defining feature of the beige/brite phenotype, while displaying uncoupled respiration. When implanted into normal chow-fed, or into high-fat diet (HFD)-fed, glucose-intolerant NOD-scid IL2rg(null) (NSG) mice, brite/beige adipocytes activated in vitro enhance systemic glucose tolerance. These adipocytes express neuroendocrine and secreted factors, including the pro-protein convertase PCSK1, which is strongly associated with human obesity. Pro-angiogenic conditions therefore drive the proliferation of human beige/brite adipocyte progenitors, and activated beige/brite adipocytes can affect systemic glucose homeostasis, potentially through a neuroendocrine mechanism.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.