Stimulating brown fat: a potential future therapeutic approach for obesity and insulin resistance?

The failure of current strategies aimed at the containment and treatment of the obesity epidemic has prompted the search for novel targets for therapeutic intervention. The recent discovery that brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity can be detected in a substantial proportion of the adult population has generated a renewed interest in the study of this tissue. As the physiologic activation of BAT can rapidly increase intracellular tri-iodothyronine (T3), generating a local, tissue-specific ‘‘thyrotoxicosis’’ and a substantial increase in energy dissipation in the form of heat, this tissue can be considered a potential therapeutic target for the development of treatments for obesity. Heart Metab. 2010;48:19–22.