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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Apr 21.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2011 Sep 28;12(11):722–734. doi: 10.1038/nrm3198

Figure 2: Relationship between white and brown adipogenesis.

Figure 2:

Historically, white and brown adipocytes were thought to derive from the same precursor cell. However, brown adipocytes instead share a common MYF5/PAX7-positive precursor with muscle cells (Box 1). The MYF5/PAX7-positive precursor is driven to brown adipocyte terminal differentiation by PPARγ and C/EBPs cooperating with the transcriptional co-regulator PRDM16. By contrast, PRDM16 does not affect white adipogenesis. White adipocytes can also be stimulated to display characteristics of brown adipocytes by cold exposure, β-adrenergic signalling, and thiazolidinediones, which appear to function via the indicated factors.