Abstract

Retrobulbar fat deposits surround the posterior retina and optic nerve head, but their function and origin are obscure. We report that mouse retrobulbar fat is a neural crest-derived tissue histologically and transcriptionally resembles interscapular brown fat. In contrast, human retrobulbar fat closely resembles white adipose tissue. Retrobulbar fat is also brown in other rodents, which are typically housed at temperatures below thermoneutrality, but is white in larger animals. We show that retrobulbar fat in mice housed at thermoneutral temperature show reduced expression of the brown fat marker Ucp1, and histological properties intermediate between white and brown fat. We conclude that retrobulbar fat can potentially serve as a site of active thermogenesis, that this capability is both temperature and species-dependent, and that this may facilitate regulation of intraocular temperature.

Details

Title
Temperature and species-dependent regulation of browning in retrobulbar fat
Author
Rajaii Fatemeh 1 ; Kim, Dong Won 2 ; Pan Jianbo 1 ; Mahoney, Nicholas R 1 ; Eberhart, Charles G 3 ; Jiang, Qian 1 ; Blackshaw, Seth 4 

 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Wilmer Eye Institute, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311) 
 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311) 
 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Wilmer Eye Institute, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311); Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311) 
 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Wilmer Eye Institute, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311); Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311); Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311); Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Institute for Cell Engineering, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311); Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Baltimore, USA (GRID:grid.21107.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2171 9311) 
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2486310247
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.