Brown Fat and Palmitate

A type of adipose tissue, Brown fat is located in the body mostly around the neck and shoulders. And like Kevin Ahern notes in his biochemistry lecture #34, different diet fat composition may have complex outcomes. Let me try to figure out whats that all about.

Palmitate blocks brown fat?

I don't get it. How does this work? So, time to dig into the topic.

Human experiments

Kien et al 2005 found that increasing palmitic acid in diet decreased fat oxidation and energy expenditure, at numbers around roughly -220 kcal/d,

In-vitro experiments

Nicholas et al 2017 experimented with human monocyte dendritic cells. In their findings palmitic acid bound to dendritic cell TLR4 -receptor as a ligand, and increased Interleukin 1 Beta -cytokine secretion.

Implications? Via TLR4 fetuin-a-activation a lipid-induced insulin resistance may be one, and increased inflammation due to cytokines the other. Wow: a lipid-induced insulin resistance. Is that like a fatty liver? Additionally, IL-1 Beta may have role in degeneration of macular retina, age or diabetes related. IL-1 Beta does have more roles so this initial idea may be lacking.

Animal models

Takeuchi 1995 noted that in rats, diet high in saturated fatty acids seemed to decrease thermogenesis, and body fat accumulation.

Copyright 2020 Casimir Pohjanraito