Biology of Beige Adipocyte and Possible Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity

Table 1

Characteristic of different kind of adipocyte tissue.

White adipocytes	Brown adipocyte	Beige adipocyte; ^1Cold, TZD, FGF21, IL-4, IL-6
Unilocular adipocyte	Multilocular adipocytes	Unilocular multilocular
Lipid storage (+++)	Lipid storage (+)	Lipid storage (+++) Lipid storage (++)
Mitochondria (+)	Mitochondria (+++)	Mitochondria (+) mitochondria (++)
Fatty acid oxidation (+)	Fatty acid oxidation (+++)	Fatty acid oxidation (+) fatty acid oxidation (+++)
Respiratory chain (+)	Respiratory chain (+++)	Respiratory chain (+) respiratory chain (+++)
UCP1 (−)	UCP1 (+++)	UCP1 (−) UCP1 (+++)
PGC-1 (+)	PGC-1 (+++)	PGC-1 (+) PGC-1 (+++)
Markers: resistin, ASC-1, FAB4	Markers: Zic1, Lhx8, Eva1, Pdk4	Markers: CD137, Tbx1, Cited1, Tmem26, CIDEA

Conditions that stimulate the thermogenic activity of beige adipocytes.
TZD: thiazolidinedione; FGF21: fibroblast growth factor 21; UCP1: uncoupling protein 1; PGC-1: peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator alpha 1; ASC-1: adipocyte-specific cell surface protein; FABP4: fatty acid binding protein 4; Zic1: zinc finger protein 1; Lhx8: LIM/homeobox protein; Eva1: epithelial V-like antigen 1; Pdk4: pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4; CD 137: cluster of differentiation 137; Tbx1: T-box transcription factor 1; Cited1: Cbp/P300-interacting transactivator 1; Tmem26: transmembrane protein 26; CIDEA: Cell death-inducing DFFA-like effector.