Browning of white fat: does irisin play a role in humans?
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Figure 1
Classical brown adipocytes share a developmental origin with skeletal muscle cells and are derived from Myf5+ precursor cells. BMP7 is involved in lineage determination as well as differentiation of classical brown adipocytes which express UCP1 and myogenic markers like ZIC1, while irisin does not promote classical brown adipocyte differentiation. White adipocytes develop from Myf5− precursor and give also rise to beige adipocytes in response to certain stimuli, such as BMP7. Only a subpopulation of white precursor cells, potentially characterized by high expression of beige markers such as CD137 and TMEM26, is likely to undergo browning in response to irisin, as proposed by Wu et al. (2012). (+), positive effect; (↔), no effect.
- © 2014 Society for Endocrinology
