Ildiko Kasza, Jens-Peter Kühn, Henry Völzke, Diego Hernando, Yaohui G Xu, John W Siebert, Angela L F Gibson, C-L Eric Yen, David W Nelson, Ormond A MacDougald, Nicole E Richardson, Dudley W Lamming, Philip A Kern, C M Alexander
Several distinct strategies produce and conserve heat to maintain the body temperature of mammals, each associated with unique physiologies, with consequences for wellness and disease susceptibility Highly regulated properties of skin offset the total requirement for heat production We hypothesize that the adipose component of skin is primarily responsible for modulating heat flux; here we evaluate the relative regulation of adipose depots in mouse and human, to test their recruitment to heat production and conservation We found that insulating mouse dermal white adipose tissue accumulates in response to environmentally and genetically induced cool stress; this layer is one of two adipose depots closely apposed to mouse skin, where the subcutaneous mammary gland fat pads are actively recruited to heat production In contrast, the body-wide adipose depot associated with human skin produces heat directly, potentially creating an alternative to the centrally regulated brown adipose tissue ABSTRACT: Mammalian skin impacts metabolic efficiency system-wide, controlling the rate of heat loss and consequent heat production...
February 2022: Journal of Physiology