Research
Energy balance
Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) activation and 'browning' of white fat are promising anti-obesity strategies that increase energy expenditure and improve glucose homeostasis.
Adults can have metabolically active brown fat, which burns calories as heat. While cold exposure activates it, future drugs may mimic this effect. Currently, maintaining a healthy weight helps preserve BAT function, which is often reduced in obesity.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Therefore, promoting BAT activation and/or brown adipocyte recruitment in white fat (browning) are approaches of considerable interest by which to develop pharmacological strategies to improve systemic metabolism by increasing energy expenditure (Fig. 5).
Why this rating
Evidence includes human PET-CT studies showing BAT presence and rodent studies showing metabolic benefits, but human therapeutic efficacy is still emerging.
Source
Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Oxidation in Obesity
Dolors Serra et al. · Antioxidants and Redox Signaling · 2012
DOI 10.1089/ars.2012.4875
narrative_reviewCited 242×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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