Brown fat activation reduces hypercholesterolaemia and protects from atherosclerosis development

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7356
• Publication Date: 2015-03-10T10:48:06Z
• Authors: Jimmy F. P. Berbée; Mariëtte R Boon; P. Padmini S. J. ...; Alexander Bartelt; Christian Schlein; Anna Worthmann; Sander Kooijman; Geerte Hoeke; Isabel M. Mol; Clara John; Caroline Jung; Nadia Vazirpanah; Linda P.J. Brouwers; Philip L.S.M. Gordts; Jeffrey D. Esko; Pieter S. Hiemstra; Louis M. Havekes; Ludger Scheja; Joerg Heeren; Patrick C.N. Rensen
• Keywords: Male; 570; Aging; Indirect; Knockout; Acclimatization; Hypercholesterolemia; 610; beta-3; Calorimetry; Cardiovascular; Article; LDL; Mice; Apolipoproteins E; Adipose Tissue, Brown; Receptors; 2.1 Biological and endogenous factors; Animals; Metabolic and endocrine; Triglycerides; Nutrition; Mice, Knockout; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Brown; Calorimetry, Indirect; Biological Sciences; Atherosclerosis; Cold Temperature; Cholesterol; Adipose Tissue; Liver; Receptors, LDL; Adrenergic; Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-3; Regression Analysis; Female; Biochemistry and Cell Biology

AbstractBrown adipose tissue (BAT) combusts high amounts of fatty acids, thereby lowering plasma triglyceride levels and reducing obesity. However, the precise role of BAT in plasma cholesterol metabolism and atherosclerosis development remains unclear. Here we show that BAT activation by β3-adrenergic receptor stimulation protects from atherosclerosis in hyperlipidemic APOE*3-Leiden.CETP mice, a well-established model for human-like lipoprotein metabolism that unlike hyperlipidemic Apoe−/− and Ldlr−/− mice expresses functional apoE and LDLR. BAT activation increases energy expenditure and decreases plasma triglyceride and cholesterol levels. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that BAT activation enhances the selective uptake of fatty acids from triglyceride-rich lipoproteins into BAT, subsequently accelerating the hepatic clearance of the cholesterol-enriched remnants. These effects depend on a functional hepatic apoE-LDLR clearance pathway as BAT activation in Apoe−/− and Ldlr−/− mice does not attenuate hypercholesterolaemia and atherosclerosis. We conclude that activation of BAT is a powerful therapeutic avenue to ameliorate hyperlipidaemia and protect from atherosclerosis.