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- All Subjects: Brown Adipose Tissue
- Creators: Morse, Lisa
- Creators: Grade, Neenah Young
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Obesity is a rising problem in the country today, and countless efforts have been made to achieve long-term weight loss. Recent research indicates that through the manipulation of Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) activity within the body, weight loss can be achieved. The goal of this experiment was to understand the effects of a high-fat diet (HFD) on BAT activity and diet-induced thermogenesis in cold-stressed rats. It was predicted that the HFD would stimulate BAT activity and this would then drive up thermogenic activity to promote weight loss. Diet-induced thermogenesis was predicted to increase during the HFD phase of this experiment as the body would require more energy to digest the more calorically dense food. Upon arrival at six weeks of age, the rats were started on a low-fat diet (LFD) ad libitum for three weeks. They were then transitioned into a HFD ad libitum for the next 8 weeks. Throughout the experiment, the rats were maintained in a cold-stressed environment at 22°C. It was determined that one of the rats was identified as obesity prone, while the other three rats were obesity resistant based on the rate of weight gain and caloric intake. Obesity can decrease metabolism in the body for many reasons, yet it was not seen in this experiment that the obesity prone rat demonstrated decreased metabolism in comparison to the others. Based on the differences seen in the reference temperatures and the BAT temperatures, it was determined that the BAT was active throughout both the LFD and HFD phases. However, the BAT did not rise significantly during the HFD period as expected. More research is indicated with a larger sample size to determine if BAT activity does continue to increase during a HFD as a result of diet-induced thermogenesis.
ContributorsLubold, Jessica Marie Sarah (Author) / Morse, Lisa (Thesis director) / Herman, Richard (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Obesity is now an epidemic in the United States and scientists must work to approach it from a unique angle. The focus of my thesis is the application of brown adipose tissue as a combatant for fat loss in the body. Unused as adults, brown adipose tissue increases metabolism and mitochondrial function to burn more fat in individuals that cannot lose weight conventionally. Current research works to introduce safe hormonal pathways in the sympathetic nervous system to generate more of this tissue.
ContributorsGrade, Neenah Young (Author) / Morse, Lisa (Thesis director) / Appel, Christy (Committee member) / Mayol-Kreiser, Sandra (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05