About this Research Topic
Obesity is a public health concern worldwide. It causes the development of multiple metabolic disorders. Several therapeutic strategies have been thought to be useful to reduce weight, such as diet, physical exercise, liposuction, and medicines, all of which have advantages and disadvantages, with taking medicines being the easiest. Brown and beige fat are discovered to be involved in the non-shivering thermogenesis, burning fat and generating heat, thus termed thermogenic fat. Classically, thermogenic fat responses to cold, and its activation depends on adrenergic stimulation. There are adrenergic agonists showing positive results in thermogenic fat activation and subsequent energy expenditure in humans though are not yet approved for clinical treatment of obesity. Besides, the signaling pathways for thermogenic fat activation are complicated. Scientists are still making great efforts to find out potential factors that can be targeted to combat obesity under different situations. However, it requires further investigation. In addition, most of the investigations are performed on rodents due to ethical reasons. Thus, a transition from translational studies to clinical practices still requires a long slog. Big challenges are still faced by entire human beings in order to counter obesity by targeting thermogenic fat.
Targeting brown and beige fat is a potential therapeutic strategy to combat obesity due to its great capacity for fat burning. However, human studies are limited due to ethical reasons. Though means to assess human brown adipose tissue (BAT) activation is diverse, especially imaging with its ability to comprehend human brown fat anatomy, mass, and function, studies on the mechanisms on the regulation of thermogenic fat activation are still very limited in rodent experiments. It is of vital importance to transmit the knowledge from experiment to practice and to improve the clinical applications of anti-obesity therapeutics.
We would like to invite submissions of Original Research and Review articles on the following topics:
- The comparison of various means to assess human brown fat function
- Diverse potential factors that can be targeted to improve the function of thermogenic fat
- miRNAs that are involved in the regulation of brown fat activation
- Therapeutics that can be potentially used in the treatment of obesity
- Current challenges of targeting thermogenic fat to combat obesity
Targeting brown and beige fat is a potential therapeutic strategy to combat obesity due to its great capacity for fat burning. However, human studies are limited due to ethical reasons. Though means to assess human brown adipose tissue (BAT) activation is diverse, especially imaging with its ability to comprehend human brown fat anatomy, mass, and function, studies on the mechanisms on the regulation of thermogenic fat activation are still very limited in rodent experiments. It is of vital importance to transmit the knowledge from experiment to practice and to improve the clinical applications of anti-obesity therapeutics.
We would like to invite submissions of Original Research and Review articles on the following topics:
- The comparison of various means to assess human brown fat function
- Diverse potential factors that can be targeted to improve the function of thermogenic fat
- miRNAs that are involved in the regulation of brown fat activation
- Therapeutics that can be potentially used in the treatment of obesity
- Current challenges of targeting thermogenic fat to combat obesity
Keywords: Obesity/T2DM, Termogenic Fat, Adapted Thermogenesis, Clinical Application
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
