Hibernation brown adipose tissue

Brown adipose tissue is the site of nonshivering thermogenesis. It is found in hibernating and newborn animals and is present in small quantity in humans. Thermogenesis results from the presence of an uncouphng protein, thermogenin, in the inner mitochondrial membrane. 

The first in vivo evidence for the involvement of this tissue in heat production was obtained from experiments on hibernating animals. Thermocouples were placed within brown adipose tissue during arousal from hibernation the... 

Malan, A., and E. Mioskowski (1988). pH-tempera-ture interactions on protein function and hibernation GDP binding to brown adipose tissue mitochondria. J. Comp. Physiol. B. 158 487-493. Martin, D.D., R.A. Ciulla, and M.F. Roberts (1999). Osmoadaptation in Archaea. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65 1815-1825. 

Two types of adipose tissue are now recognized, namely ordinary white adipose tissue and brown adipose tissue, which is found in hibernating animals and newborn infants but is very poorly defined in adult humans. Ordinary white adipose tissue acts as an energy reserve and a heat insulator, while brown adipose tissue is specialized for the production of heat instead of ATP. 

Human infants, and many hibernating animals, have adipose tissue called brown fat, which is specialized to generate heat rather than ATP during oxidation of fatty acids. Adult humans have very little brown fat tissue. 

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