What to think of my brown adipose tissue?

By Tatjana van der Krabben

During my continued liposuction treatments I went from being a hyperventilating mess to an intrigued amateur researcher, much to the amusement of the surgeon involved. The last time my arms were treated. We were chatting about research on (lipedema) fat cells, brown fat and white fat. Brown fat is the stuff that makes chubby babies happy and healthy babies that burn it off nicely. The white fat is being connected to health problems. With the procedure in progress the surgeon pointed out when brown fat passed through the tube connected to the suction device. It actually is brownish looking, I thought to myself. And next I thought: #*^%!!!, doesn’t that have to do with burning fat, so why can’t I manage to do that?! I work out, I watch what I eat: why is that sitting there, contributing to the fact my arms look like bat wings?! It was the birth of a new point of interest.

Brown adipose tissue is in adults mainly found in depots localized below the clavicles and in the neck, although amount and shape may vary considerably (Cannon & Nedergaard, 2012, Ouellet et al, 2012).  This fat is of particular interest for a couple of reasons. The very short and simple version: Ouellet et al found that when exposed to cold, the brain stimulates the brown fat, which creates (eventually) increased metabolic activity. Meaning, it helps you get warm(er) again. Not the shivering to generate body heat, no, this comes from an additional heater on the inside: brown fat.

There’s more and this is where it gets of interest to us. They also looked at brown fat to see if that metabolic activity played a part in how your food intake is being processed. It was found that test subjects with brown fat convert a higher portion of the calories in the meal directly into heat as opposed to subjects without brown fat. There’s catch in this: the brown fat was only under cold conditions “on fire”. We would need it to be “on fire” when we eat to fight obesity. Still, they also observed more burning of the food intake and less storing in subjects with brown fat.

There are more assumptions regarding brown adipose tissue. It is not only burning more of your intake, but also helps burning white fat. Stoffel (2012) has found an answer to the question on how to regulate and activate the forming of brown fat. He found that MicroRNA-133 is an important regulator. MicroRNA are small, specific molecules involved in regulation of gene expression. The behavior of this small piece of ribonucleic acid (RNA) plays an important part in the forming of a protein Prdm 16. You need the interaction between the two, because without stem cells cannot change into brown fat cells, nor does it allow for activating the existing brown fat. “Pdrm 16 is the switch that cranks up body heat”. Under the influence of cold a new chain of events is triggered. Adrenalin is distributed , Prdm 16 gets the opportunity to build up and MicroRNA-133 decreases. Without its opponent, the protein can generate new brown fat cells en heat up white fat (Rüegg, 2012).

Also of importance: various sources state it was observed that obese people have little or no brown fat. Lack of brown fat would – in theory – hinder your attempts to lose weight and avoid the storing of your food intake as more white fat.

I’m not even going to pretend I comprehend all this word for word, but I do see the potential of this. Brown fat can theoretically work in our favor. Better yet, stem cells in our fat could turn into brown fat cells under favorable conditions that may be manipulated.

Having brown fat and not getting the benefits?
Back to me on that operating table. I have brown fat. I Saw it. It was never tested in neck or below clavicles, but I had it in my arms for sure and possibly in other places. Yet, I’m a food storing champion who had to clean out her “stock pile” through liposuction. Also, I can’t get warm. I’m cold all the time. Shiver like a mountain climber in a pitched tent on Mount Everest, under conditions when most would be comfortable. According to theory the brown fat should be in business when cold. It’s not just me: I hear other women with lipedema complain about feeling cold virtually all the time as well. What is that?

Is that protein Prdm 16 taking some serious R&R? Do I need more brown fat to see some results - not to mention some went literally down the drain last November. In the description of the cycle it was mentioned adrenaline also plays a significant part. How does that all fit together in lipedema? I’m puzzled. Puzzled and fascinated.