Brief Communication: Histological Assessment of Nonhuman Primate Brown Adipose Tissue Highlights the Importance of Sympathetic Innervation

Figure 1

Immunohistochemical analysis of brown adipose tissue. Panel (a) depicts the histological features, UCP1, COX IV, CD31, TH, and β3-AR, as expressed in brown adipose tissue from a healthy African green vervet monkey. The immunostaining from this subject was chosen for presentation here, as this subject has the highest antibody abundance across the most histological features measured. A healthy high abundance sample was chosen to provide a clear depiction of immunostaining itself. The top row of the panel displays samples of adipose tissue with indicated antibodies at 10x magnification, and the bottom row displays a portion of the same region of interest at 40x magnification. The graphic on panel (b) illustrates the significant correlation between brown adipose tissue tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) density and fat mass expressed as a percentage of body weight ( value = 0.004, r = −0.55, n = 26).

(a)

(b)