BMP8 and activated brown adipose tissue in human newborns

Acknowledgements Miguel López thanks María López-Piñeiro, Sara López-Piñeiro, Marta López-Piñeiro, and Irene Piñeiro for the opportunity to do this work and because he would never have done this study without them. He also thanks all the clinical staff of Neonatology Service, of University Clinical Hospital of Santiago de Compostela for their outstanding support, help, and assistance during November 2014. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Xunta de Galicia (R.N.: 2016-PG057; M.L.: 2016-PG068); Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) co-funded by the FEDER Program of EU (R.N.: RTI2018-099413-B-I00; C.D.: BFU2017-87721-P; F.V.: SAF2017-85722-R; M.L.: RTI2018-101840-B-I00: F.V., J.M.F.-R., and M.L.: BFU2017-90578-REDT/Adipoplast); Instituto de Salud Carlos III (J.M.F.-R.: PI15-01934); Atresmedia Corporación (R.N. and M.L.); Fundación BBVA (R.N.); la Caixa Foundation (ID 100010434), under the agreement LCF/PR/HR19/52160022 (M.L.); European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (R.N.) and ERC Synergy Grant-2019-WATCH- 810331 (R.N.) and Research Grant SOPEGA 2016 (A.U. and M.L.C.). F.V. is an ICREA Academia researcher (Generalitat de Catalunya). I.G.-G. is the recipient of a fellowship from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions. The CiMUS is supported by the Xunta de Galicia (2016-2019, ED431G/05). CIBER de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición is an initiative of ISCIII. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the paper.
The classical dogma states that brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays a major role in the regulation of temperature in neonates. However, although BAT has been studied in infants for more than a century, the knowledge about its physiological features at this stage of life is rather limited. This has been mainly due to the lack of appropriate investigation methods, ethically suitable for neonates. Here, we have applied non-invasive infrared thermography (IRT) to investigate neonatal BAT activity. Our data show that BAT temperature correlates with body temperature and that mild cold stimulus promotes BAT activation in newborns. Notably, a single short-term cold stimulus during the first day of life improves the body temperature adaption to a subsequent cold event. Finally, we identify that bone morphogenic protein 8B (BMP8B) is associated with the BAT thermogenic response in neonates. Overall, our data uncover key features of the setup of BAT thermogenesis in newborns.
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
European Commission
Xunta de Galicia
Instituto de Salud Carlos III
Atresmedia Corporación
Fundación BBVA
Depto. de Biología Celular
Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas
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