Brown adipose tissue harbors a distinct sub-population of regulatory T cells.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 25714366.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0118534 and PMC identifier 4340926.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Regulatory T (Treg) cells are critical determinants of both immune responses and metabolic control. Here we show that systemic ablation of Treg cells compromised the adaptation of whole-body energy expenditure to cold exposure, correlating with impairment in thermogenic marker gene expression and massive invasion of pro-inflammatory macrophages in brown adipose tissue (BAT). Indeed, BAT harbored a unique sub-set of Treg cells characterized by a unique gene signature. As these Treg cells respond to BAT activation upon cold exposure, this study defines a BAT-specific Treg sub-set with direct implications for the regulation of energy homeostasis in response to environmental stress.
Medical subject headings
- Adipose Tissue, Brown
- T-Lymphocyte Subsets
- T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory