ABSTRACT
The prevalence of obesity has been rising in recent years. Obesity has become one of the global public health problems‚ which can increase the risk of hypertension‚ coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases‚ and prevention and treatment of obesity has become an urgent social problem to be solved. Beige adipocytes are new kind of heat-producing adipocytes‚ which can be transformed by white adipocytes stimulated by chronic cold exposure‚ some medicine and exercise. The morphology and function of beige adipocytes are different from white adipocytes‚ but are similar to brown adipocytes. Beige adipocytes have abundant mitochondria and can produce heat to consumer energy‚ which are new target for the prevention and treatment of obesity. Mitochondria is the main part of energy metabolism in eukaryotic cells‚ which can provide energy to the body. Mitochondrial quality control regulates mitochondrial quantity and quality in beige adipocytes‚ which can affect the conversion and thermogenesis of beige adipocytes. Mitochondrial quality control is regulated by several coordinated mechanisms including mitochondrial biogenesis‚ mitophagy and fission / fusion. The mitochondrial biogenesis and mitophagy can regulate mitochondrial renewal and degradation‚ and the mitochondrial fusion / division is responsible for mitochondrial repairing. Some studies have found that the change of mitochondrial quantity‚ morphology and function can affect the beige adipocytes formation‚ beige adipocytes maintenance and thermogenesis. However‚ the relationship between mitochondrial quality control and beige adipocytes remains unclear. In this review‚ we discuss the effect of mitochondrial biogenesis‚mitophagy and mitochondrial fission / fusion on beige adipocytes‚ and illustrate the relationship between mitochondrial quality control and beige adipocytes‚ which may provide new insights into the prevention and treatment of obesity.
ABSTRACT
Generally, human adipocytes can be broadly divided into white and brown fat cells. White fat cellsare specialized to store chemical energy and brownadipocytes can produce heat under external stimulation. Recent studies have demonstrated that when mice are exposed to cold or receive β-adrenergic stimulation, some brown-fat-like cells may appear in the subcutaneous white adipose depot, and these cells are called "beige cells". Beige cells have the characteristics of both white and brown fat cels and can transfer to each other. Biologically brown fat in adult humans is similar to beige cels. This paper is to review the research progress on beige cells.