Endocrine Abstracts

Brown adipocytes in dedicated depots of brown adipose tissue (BAT) arise from cellular precursors that also give rise to skeletal muscle cells. We found that early B cell factor-2 (Ebf2) expression in the mesoderm of mouse embryos marks brown fat precursors that are destined to activate Pparγ expression and differentiate into Ucp1+ brown adipocytes. Loss of Ebf2 in mice causes a very severe defect in BAT development and function. Ebf2 cooperates with Pparγ t...