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brown fat

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brown fat
Etymology: ME, broun + AS, faett, filled
a type of fat present in newborns and rarely found in adults. Brown fat is a unique source of heat energy for the infant because it has greater thermogenic activity than ordinary fat. Brown fat deposits occur around the kidneys, neck, and upper chest.

brown fat
see brown adipose tissue.

brown fat
Brown adipose tissue A special form of fat that generates heat by nonshivering thermogenesis, so designated as it is rich in mitochondria, which imparts a pardous hue; BF is rich in sympathetic nerve endings and vessels and its metabolic activity and development is regulated by norepinephrine, and it is normally located in the axillary, subscapular, and interscapular regions, around the large thoracoabdominal vessels, heart, kidneys, and adrenal glands; BF is ↑ in Chagas' disease, CHF, Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, malignancy, pheochromocytoma, SIDS, and in malnutrition


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Hjelle (Albuquerque, NM), heat shock in cell cultures and cold shock in vivo can reactivate SNV, which persists in heart, lung, and, interestingly, brown fat.
Brown fat is abundant in newborn mammals, and some animals, such as mice, retain their brown fat into adulthood.
But that gene, called UCP1, is active only in brown fat, which is sparse in adults.
 
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