After a long drought caused by misjudged irrelevance to human biology, the research field of brown adipose tissue has seen a period of resurgence since 2009 when discoveries of brown fat in adults were reported. However, the molecular and physiological regulators of the different types of adipose tissues—white, beige or brown—are still far from being fully determined. Speakers of the morning session of the 16th Annual Symposium of the Université Laval's Chair in Obesity, a series interestingly launched in 1998 precisely on the topic of uncoupling proteins, presented past and recent findings on non-adrenergic signaling pathways—both upstream and downstream—regulating the metabolic and thermogenic activities of adipose tissue. They went on to show that these pathways are altered in the contexts of obesity and aging, the latter being a very important factor involved in the decline of non-shivering thermogenesis. Whereas opinions diverged on readily applicable solutions for development of candidate therapeutics, the panelists agreed that the new factors involved in the control of the adipose thermogenic program hold great promise for innovation. This will likely depend on how this novel knowledge is integrated into the complex regulation of thermogenesis, which will be achieved through better-defined experimental protocols, both in humans and non-human models.

在由于与人类生物学无关的错误判断而导致的长期干旱之后，棕色脂肪组织的研究领域自2009年报道成人发现棕色脂肪以来已经历了一段复兴。但是，不同类型的脂肪组织（白色，米色或棕色）的分子和生理调节剂仍远未完全确定。拉瓦尔大学肥胖症讲座第16届年会上午会议的发言人于1998年发起了一系列有趣的活动，正是有关解偶联蛋白的主题，介绍了过去和最近关于非肾上腺素信号传导途径（上游和下游）调节的发现。脂肪组织的代谢和生热活性。他们继续表明，这些途径在肥胖和衰老的背景下发生了变化，后者是导致非颤抖的产热下降的一个非常重要的因素。鉴于对于候选疗法的开发应采用的可行解决方案存在分歧，小组成员一致认为，控制脂肪产热计划的新因素具有很大的创新前景。这可能取决于这种新知识如何整合到热生成的复杂调控中，这将通过在人类和非人类模型中通过更好定义的实验规程来实现。