Heating and Eating: a Role of Brown Fat in the Control of Food Intake
Event details
Date | 02.06.2017 |
Hour | 12:30 › 13:30 |
Speaker |
Prof. Martin Klingenspor, Technical University Munich (D) |
Location | |
Category | Conferences - Seminars |
BIOENGINEERING SEMINAR
Abstract:
During the past 10 years mammalian adipose tissue biology has received considerable attention. Major progress was made in elucidating the developmental origin of adipocytes, the heterogeneity and functional plasticity of adipose tissues, and the metabolic activity of human adipose tissues. In addition to heat dissipation in brown fat, the formation of thermogenic brown-like adipocytes can be induced by physiological and pharmacological stimuli in white fat. In animal models for obesity and diabetes, the formation of brown and brown-in-white (brite) fat has beneficial metabolic effects. In adult human subjects activation of brown/brite fat is regularly observed upon cold exposure, but is attenuated with increasing age and BMI. In obese and diabetic patients with low brown/brite fat activity, catabolic activity can be reactivated by periods of cold acclimation associated with improved metabolic profile. Therefore, the recruitment and activation of thermogenic brown/brite adipocytes in human adipose tissues as a treatment for metabolic disease is of prime interest.
Most research on brown/brite fat concentrates on the energy sink function, with less attention directed towards a possible role of this heater organ in the regulation of energy intake. In the last century lipostatic, glucostatic, and thermostatic hypotheses on the control of food intake were put forward. Revitalizing these old concepts, meal-associated heat dissipation in brown fat induced by the sympathetic innervation was suggested to play a key role in thermoregulatory feeding. In support, beta-3-adrenergic stimulation of brown fat inhibits food intake. Alike cold-induced activation, several reports demonstrate single meal-induced increase in glucose and fatty acid uptake in brown/brite fat of rodents and humans. Moreover, maximal brown fat activity coincides with meal termination. Sensory innervation, adipokines secreted from brown fat or heat as such could feedback information to the brain and promote satiation. This talk will present evidence for a role of brown fat in the control of food intake.
Bio:
After studying biology (1994), Prof. Klingenspor did his doctorate at Philipp University of Marburg. Thanks to a research grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) (1995/96), he went to work under Prof. Karen Reue at West Los Angeles VA Medical Center (USA). He returned to Marburg to complete his lecturer qualification (2001) in zoology and animal physiology. He became deputy head of that university’s Department of Animal Physiology (2004). In 2007, he became Chair of Molecular Nutritional Medicine at the Technical University Munich (TUM). Prof. Klingenspor is an appointed expert in various German and international research organizations. He is the co-editor of the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.
Prof. Klingenspor (b. 1961) researches the mechanisms of metabolic regulation with the aim of identifying how nutrition affects the body’s energy balance, i.e. the balance between energy intake and energy expenditure. His work centers on examining regulation of the efficiency of energy conversion in mitochondria as the powerhouses of eukaryotic cells.
Abstract:
During the past 10 years mammalian adipose tissue biology has received considerable attention. Major progress was made in elucidating the developmental origin of adipocytes, the heterogeneity and functional plasticity of adipose tissues, and the metabolic activity of human adipose tissues. In addition to heat dissipation in brown fat, the formation of thermogenic brown-like adipocytes can be induced by physiological and pharmacological stimuli in white fat. In animal models for obesity and diabetes, the formation of brown and brown-in-white (brite) fat has beneficial metabolic effects. In adult human subjects activation of brown/brite fat is regularly observed upon cold exposure, but is attenuated with increasing age and BMI. In obese and diabetic patients with low brown/brite fat activity, catabolic activity can be reactivated by periods of cold acclimation associated with improved metabolic profile. Therefore, the recruitment and activation of thermogenic brown/brite adipocytes in human adipose tissues as a treatment for metabolic disease is of prime interest.
Most research on brown/brite fat concentrates on the energy sink function, with less attention directed towards a possible role of this heater organ in the regulation of energy intake. In the last century lipostatic, glucostatic, and thermostatic hypotheses on the control of food intake were put forward. Revitalizing these old concepts, meal-associated heat dissipation in brown fat induced by the sympathetic innervation was suggested to play a key role in thermoregulatory feeding. In support, beta-3-adrenergic stimulation of brown fat inhibits food intake. Alike cold-induced activation, several reports demonstrate single meal-induced increase in glucose and fatty acid uptake in brown/brite fat of rodents and humans. Moreover, maximal brown fat activity coincides with meal termination. Sensory innervation, adipokines secreted from brown fat or heat as such could feedback information to the brain and promote satiation. This talk will present evidence for a role of brown fat in the control of food intake.
Bio:
After studying biology (1994), Prof. Klingenspor did his doctorate at Philipp University of Marburg. Thanks to a research grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) (1995/96), he went to work under Prof. Karen Reue at West Los Angeles VA Medical Center (USA). He returned to Marburg to complete his lecturer qualification (2001) in zoology and animal physiology. He became deputy head of that university’s Department of Animal Physiology (2004). In 2007, he became Chair of Molecular Nutritional Medicine at the Technical University Munich (TUM). Prof. Klingenspor is an appointed expert in various German and international research organizations. He is the co-editor of the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.
Prof. Klingenspor (b. 1961) researches the mechanisms of metabolic regulation with the aim of identifying how nutrition affects the body’s energy balance, i.e. the balance between energy intake and energy expenditure. His work centers on examining regulation of the efficiency of energy conversion in mitochondria as the powerhouses of eukaryotic cells.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free