Brown adipose tissue cell therapy for obesity and diabetes

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a rare type of fat that in contrast to abundant white adipose tissue does not store eneregy but burns it to generate heat. BAT mass and function is inversely correlated with obesity and BAT has also been shown to improve glucose defects observed in diabeties, above what would be expected from weight loss alone. Therefore therapies that activate BAT or increase BAT mass should have positive effects on weight loss and diabetes. However, adult humans have very little BAT and it decreases with age, therefore methods to increase BAT mass could be predicted to have more effect than activation of existing BAT. We have developed the first protocols to generate human BAT in vitro from adult stem cells derived from WAT. We propose a cell therapy whereby stem cells are isolated from WAT of individuals, converted to BAT in vitro and transplanted back to the individual for treatment of obesity or diabetes and their associated morbidities.