Data from: Brown adipose tissue and skeletal muscle coordinately contribute to thermogenesis in mice

Endotherms increase the rate of metabolism in metabolic organs as one
strategy to cope with a decline in the temperature of the external
environment. However, an additional major contributor to maintenance of
body temperature in a cold environment is contraction-based thermogenesis
in skeletal muscle. Here, we show that impairment of hind limb muscle
contraction by cast immobilization induced a loss of function of skeletal
muscle and activated brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis as a
compensatory mechanism. BAT utilizes free branched-chain amino acids
(BCAAs) derived from skeletal muscle as an energy substrate for
thermogenesis, and interleukin-6 released by skeletal muscle stimulates
BCAA production in muscle for support of BAT thermogenesis. Additionally,
this thermoregulatory system between BAT and skeletal muscle may also play
an important role in response to cold temperatures or acute stress. Our
findings suggest that BAT and skeletal muscle cooperate to maintain body
temperature in endotherms.