# Regulation of beige adipocyte maintenance and its impact on metabolic outcomes

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2024 · $498,385

## Abstract

Title: Regulation of beige adipocyte maintenance and its impact on metabolic outcomes
Project Summary/Abstract
A potential therapeutic target to curb the global obesity and diabetes epidemic is thermogenic beige fat within
white adipose tissue (WAT). Unlike white adipocyte which stores fat, beige adipocytes are stimulated
thermogenic fat cells in WAT that robustly consume lipid and glucose. However, Beige adipocytes quickly
disappear upon the removal of stimuli, a process further accelerated by age and obesity. This creates a key
challenge to explore beige adipocytes as a sustainable therapy for chronic metabolic diseases. A long-term goal
of my laboratory is to understand the development and maintenance of beige adipocytes, and the metabolic
outcomes. In our preliminary studies using unique mouse models, we demonstrate that beige adipocytes can be
induced and maintained by pharmacological and genetical measures. Further, our preliminary results suggest
that these induced beige adipocytes are maintained in the older mice, even without continuous stimulation.
These exciting findings, although preliminary in nature, suggest novel measures to use beige adipocyte as
potential therapeutics to treat obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases. In this application, we will
investigate whether the sustained beige adipocytes can improve the metabolic fitness under both health and
disease conditions, thereby achieving anti-obesity and anti-diabetes effects. Furthermore, we will elucidate the
critical molecular mechanisms by which beige adipocyte identity is preserved. In addition, we will employ cell-
type selective transcriptomic approach to comprehensively characterize the molecular components involved in
beige adipocyte maintenance.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10796984
- **Project number:** 5R01DK132398-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Yuwei Jiang
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $498,385
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-05-15 → 2027-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10796984

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10796984, Regulation of beige adipocyte maintenance and its impact on metabolic outcomes (5R01DK132398-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10796984. Licensed CC0.

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