What is beige fat and is it healthy?
New research suggests this mysterious type of fat cell may play a key role in heart health
A mouse aorta with immunofluorescent tagging. In a new study in rats, beige fat is linked to lower blood pressure.
Wesley R. Professor of Molecular Metabolism at Rockefeller University. and William H. Janeway Laboratory
When we think of fat, we often think of white fat cells, which store excess calories like many batteries, providing insulation and cushioning for our muscles, bones, and organs. But not all fat is white: Mammals also have brown fat – named for its rust-like color, due to its high concentration of iron-rich mitochondria – which does the opposite, burning energy to keep the body warm. And then there’s beige fat.
First proposed in 2008, beige fat is located in white adipose tissue, but it works like brown fat, burning energy efficiently when exposed to cold temperatures. In recent years a growing body of evidence has suggested that beige fat may play an important role in heart health.
“There’s enough data to say that beige fat is good for human health,” says Bruce Spiegelman, a researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and professor of cell biology and medicine at Harvard Medical School, who proposed the existence of beige fat and was First to isolate beige fat cells in 2012. “To me, this is established science now.”
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a new study published in Science On Thursday, that evidence was added: It shows that beige fat helps reduce blood pressure in rats. High blood pressure is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. The study, led by researchers at Rockefeller University, builds on previous work showing a link between brown fat and low blood pressure in humans.
In humans, brown fat is most commonly found in infants and is located primarily in stores between our shoulder blades. Scientists believe this fat, like that of other mammals, is to keep us warm in cold temperatures. But as we age, most of this brown fat begins to decrease. Meanwhile, what researchers call beige fat is found above our diaphragm and in our neck and upper spine. Like brown fat, it burns energy to release heat when exposed to cold.
In 2021, Paul Cohen, an associate professor at Rockefeller University who studies obesity, published a paper It showed that people with more brown fat were less likely to have type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease and high blood pressure. This raises new questions, Cohen says.
“Is this link between brown fat and high blood pressure (hypertension) just a correlation?” says Cohen, who is also the new author Science paper. “Or is there a causal relationship?”
Cohen and his colleagues found that mice born without beige fat had higher blood pressure than mice with that type of fat – evidence for a causal relationship.
“If we change the identity of the adipose tissue, we see increased blood pressure in these mice,” says Masha Coenen, a postdoctoral researcher in Cohen’s lab and co-author of the new study.
The team also found that removing beige fat affected the production of an enzyme called QSOX1 that can alter blood vessels and increase blood pressure.
This finding is particularly interesting, says Biao Wang, an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies the development of adipose tissue. By identifying a mechanism through which beige fat cells can regulate blood pressure, it opens the door to further human studies.
And, Wang says, it raises a new question: “What else might beige fat secrete?”
Cohen and his colleagues hope the new study will help clarify how beige and brown fat affects human health. “The hope is that work like this will lead to new treatments and more personalized treatments based on a patient’s specific characteristics that may be better suited to controlling blood pressure,” Cohen says. Spiegelman says obesity is also linked to lower levels of brown fat and higher levels of white fat, but more research is needed to fully understand why.
Researchers aren’t entirely sure how to increase levels of beige and brown fat, but they have some theories. At least in rodents, factors like healthy diet, exercise and exposure to cold may help “move the needle,” says Spiegelman.
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