Brown adipose tissue (BAT) has been proposed to play an important role
in the regulation of energy balance. The unique presence of uncouplin
g protein (UCP) permits BAT to expend calories unrelated to the perfor
mance of work with the net result being the generation of heat. The ro
le of BAT in mediating diet-induced thermogenesis had led to the sugge
stion that BAT activity contributes to metabolic inefficiency and, as
such, might provide a cellular and molecular explanation for protectio
n from obesity. In order to directly test this hypothesis, we recently
created mice with isolated BAT deficiency by using a suicide DNA tran
sgenic vector in which regulatory elements of the UCP gene were used t
o drive brown fat specific expression of diphteria toxin A-chain (DTA)
. Transgenic mice are characterized by reduced energy expenditure and
marked obesity, associated with insulin resistance and NIDDM with both
receptor and post-receptor components. Feeding of a ''Western diet''
which derives 41% of its calories from fat leads to a synergistic effe
ct on the development of obesity and its accompanying disorders in tra
nsgenics. The results of our studies support a critical role for BAT i
n the nutritional homeostasis of mice and suggest that the intact ther
mogenic function of BAT is required for protection from diet induced o
besity. Obese UCP-DTA mice have many features in common with obesity a
s it appears in most humans, and should therefore be a useful model th
at may aid studies of the pathogenesis and treatment of human obesity,
NIDDM and their complications.