Effects of ambient temperatures between 5 and 35 °C on energy balance, body mass and body composition in mice

Zhijun Zhao; Rui Yang; Min Li; Menghuan Bao; Daliang Huo; Jing Cao; John R Speakman

doi:10.1016/j.molmet.2022.101551

Effects of ambient temperatures between 5 and 35 °C on energy balance, body mass and body composition in mice

Zhijun Zhao^* (Corresponding Author), Rui Yang, Min Li, Menghuan Bao, Daliang Huo, Jing Cao, John R Speakman^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

2 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Considerable attention is currently focused on the potential to switch on brown adipose tissue (BAT), or promote browning of white adipose tissue, to elevate energy expenditure and thereby reduce obesity levels. These processes are already known to be switched on by cold exposure. Yet humans living in colder regions do not show lower levels of obesity. This could be because humans shield themselves from external temperatures, or because the resultant changes in BAT and thermogenesis are offset by elevated food intake, or reductions in other components of expenditure.

SCOPE OF REVIEW: We exposed mice to 11 different ambient temperatures between 5 and 35 °C and characterized their energy balance and body weight/composition. As it got colder mice progressively increased their energy expenditure coincident with changes in thyroid hormone levels and increased BAT activity. Simultaneously, these increases in expenditure were matched by elevated food intake, and body mass remained stable. Nevertheless, within this envelope of unchanged body mass there were significant changes in body composition - with increases in the sizes of the liver and small intestine, presumably to support the greater food intake, and reductions in the level of stored fat - maximally providing about 10% of the total elevated energy demands.

MAJOR CONCLUSIONS: Elevating activity of BAT may be a valid strategy to reduce fat storage even if overall body mass is unchanged but if it is mostly offset by elevated food intake, as found here, then the impacts may be small.

Original language	English
Article number	101551
Number of pages	10
Journal	Molecular Metabolism
Volume	64
Early online date	20 Jul 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2022.101551
Publication status	Published - Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
This work was partly supported by grants (31670417 and 31870388 to Z.J.Z., and
92057206 to J.R.S) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the
National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFA0801900 to J.R.S).

Data Availability Statement

Data Availability
All data that support the findings of this study are publicly available https://osf.io/am8nw/

Supplementary Data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
molmet.2022.101551.

Keywords

brown adipose tissue
energy expenditure
body fat
energy intake
thermogenesis
cold

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.molmet.2022.101551Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Zhao_etal_MM_Effects_Of_Ambient_VoR
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Final published version, 162 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "Effects of ambient temperatures between 5 and 35 °C on energy balance, body mass and body composition in mice",

abstract = "BACKGROUND: Considerable attention is currently focused on the potential to switch on brown adipose tissue (BAT), or promote browning of white adipose tissue, to elevate energy expenditure and thereby reduce obesity levels. These processes are already known to be switched on by cold exposure. Yet humans living in colder regions do not show lower levels of obesity. This could be because humans shield themselves from external temperatures, or because the resultant changes in BAT and thermogenesis are offset by elevated food intake, or reductions in other components of expenditure.SCOPE OF REVIEW: We exposed mice to 11 different ambient temperatures between 5 and 35 °C and characterized their energy balance and body weight/composition. As it got colder mice progressively increased their energy expenditure coincident with changes in thyroid hormone levels and increased BAT activity. Simultaneously, these increases in expenditure were matched by elevated food intake, and body mass remained stable. Nevertheless, within this envelope of unchanged body mass there were significant changes in body composition - with increases in the sizes of the liver and small intestine, presumably to support the greater food intake, and reductions in the level of stored fat - maximally providing about 10% of the total elevated energy demands.MAJOR CONCLUSIONS: Elevating activity of BAT may be a valid strategy to reduce fat storage even if overall body mass is unchanged but if it is mostly offset by elevated food intake, as found here, then the impacts may be small.",

keywords = "brown adipose tissue, energy expenditure, body fat, energy intake, thermogenesis, cold",

author = "Zhijun Zhao and Rui Yang and Min Li and Menghuan Bao and Daliang Huo and Jing Cao and Speakman, {John R}",

note = "Acknowledgements This work was partly supported by grants (31670417 and 31870388 to Z.J.Z., and 92057206 to J.R.S) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFA0801900 to J.R.S).",

year = "2022",

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doi = "10.1016/j.molmet.2022.101551",

language = "English",

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T1 - Effects of ambient temperatures between 5 and 35 °C on energy balance, body mass and body composition in mice

AU - Zhao, Zhijun

AU - Yang, Rui

AU - Li, Min

AU - Bao, Menghuan

AU - Huo, Daliang

AU - Cao, Jing

AU - Speakman, John R

N1 - Acknowledgements This work was partly supported by grants (31670417 and 31870388 to Z.J.Z., and 92057206 to J.R.S) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFA0801900 to J.R.S).

PY - 2022/10

Y1 - 2022/10

N2 - BACKGROUND: Considerable attention is currently focused on the potential to switch on brown adipose tissue (BAT), or promote browning of white adipose tissue, to elevate energy expenditure and thereby reduce obesity levels. These processes are already known to be switched on by cold exposure. Yet humans living in colder regions do not show lower levels of obesity. This could be because humans shield themselves from external temperatures, or because the resultant changes in BAT and thermogenesis are offset by elevated food intake, or reductions in other components of expenditure.SCOPE OF REVIEW: We exposed mice to 11 different ambient temperatures between 5 and 35 °C and characterized their energy balance and body weight/composition. As it got colder mice progressively increased their energy expenditure coincident with changes in thyroid hormone levels and increased BAT activity. Simultaneously, these increases in expenditure were matched by elevated food intake, and body mass remained stable. Nevertheless, within this envelope of unchanged body mass there were significant changes in body composition - with increases in the sizes of the liver and small intestine, presumably to support the greater food intake, and reductions in the level of stored fat - maximally providing about 10% of the total elevated energy demands.MAJOR CONCLUSIONS: Elevating activity of BAT may be a valid strategy to reduce fat storage even if overall body mass is unchanged but if it is mostly offset by elevated food intake, as found here, then the impacts may be small.

AB - BACKGROUND: Considerable attention is currently focused on the potential to switch on brown adipose tissue (BAT), or promote browning of white adipose tissue, to elevate energy expenditure and thereby reduce obesity levels. These processes are already known to be switched on by cold exposure. Yet humans living in colder regions do not show lower levels of obesity. This could be because humans shield themselves from external temperatures, or because the resultant changes in BAT and thermogenesis are offset by elevated food intake, or reductions in other components of expenditure.SCOPE OF REVIEW: We exposed mice to 11 different ambient temperatures between 5 and 35 °C and characterized their energy balance and body weight/composition. As it got colder mice progressively increased their energy expenditure coincident with changes in thyroid hormone levels and increased BAT activity. Simultaneously, these increases in expenditure were matched by elevated food intake, and body mass remained stable. Nevertheless, within this envelope of unchanged body mass there were significant changes in body composition - with increases in the sizes of the liver and small intestine, presumably to support the greater food intake, and reductions in the level of stored fat - maximally providing about 10% of the total elevated energy demands.MAJOR CONCLUSIONS: Elevating activity of BAT may be a valid strategy to reduce fat storage even if overall body mass is unchanged but if it is mostly offset by elevated food intake, as found here, then the impacts may be small.

KW - brown adipose tissue

KW - energy expenditure

KW - body fat

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KW - thermogenesis

KW - cold

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JO - Molecular Metabolism

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