. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Oct 4.

Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2016 Aug 24;17(11):691–702. doi: 10.1038/nrm.2016.96

Table 1.

Characteristics of brown, beige and white adipocytes

Type	Location	Developmental Origins/Precursor type	Common Markers		Brown/Beige vs. White Markers		Brown vs. Beige Markers
Type	Location	Developmental Origins/Precursor type	Adipocyte	Pread	Adipocyte	Pread	Adipocyte	Pread
Brown	Interscapular Cervical Axillary Perirenal	• Myf5+, Pax7+, En1+ cells in dermomyotome	Adipoq Fabp4 Pparγ C/EBPβ	Pdgfrα Sca1 CD34 Pref1 CD29	Ucp1 Dio2 Cidea Ppargc1a Pparα Cox7a1 Cox8b Prdm16 Ebf2	Ebf2	Lhx8 Zic1 Eva1 Pdk4 Epstl1
Beige	WAT depots • Inguinal ≫ Epididymal	Inguinal WAT • Ebf2+; PDGFRα+cells • Acta2+ smooth muscle cells • Myh11+ smooth muscle cells • Pdgfrβ+ mural cells Eoididvmal WAT • Bipotent Pdgfrα+ precursor				Ebf2	Tbx1 Cited1 Shox2 CD137 TMEM26 PAT2 P2RX5	CD137
White	Subcutaneous Visceral	• Wt1+ mesothelial (visceral)			Lep Retn Agt	Wt1 (visceral fat)

Footnotes: Pref1 is a common marker for brown, beige, and white preadipocytes¹²¹. Wt1 is a specific marker of visceral white adipocyte progenitors in the mesothelium¹²². Brown fat-selective (vs. beige fat) markers include: Lxh8, Zic1, Eva1, Pdk4 and Epstl1^{11, 12, 60}. Beige fat-selective markers include: Tbx1, Cited1, Shox2, Cd137, TMEM26, PAT2, P2RX5^{11, 12, 37, 60, 61}. CD29 is a recently identified marker for isolation of human preadipocytes¹²³. Cell surface markers are labeled in blue.