Calorie restricted diet (50% food intake of control animals) for 3 weeks decelerated weight gain in laboratory mice, reduced the weight of abdominal fat, and decreased the rate of oxygen consumption by brown adipose tissue. The relative weight of interscapular brown fat and protein content in it did not differ from the control. DNA content in brown fat in mice kept on calorie restricted diet increased by 93% compared with the control.

No abstract

Long-term calorie-restricted diet (8 weeks, 60% of control food intake) was followed by an increase in thermogenic activity of interscapular brown fat. The relative amount of DNA and protein and the rate of oxygen consumption increased and tissue-specific marker of brown fat (uncoupling protein UCP1) appeared in significantly reduced deep-pink abdominal adipose tissue.

Immunoreactive uncoupling protein UCP1 was found in the perigonadal fat of only twothirds of 14-week-old male ICR mice. The presence of UCP1 had no effect on the rate of O2 consumption by the adipose tissue. The cellularity of perigonadal fat estimated by the DNA content was significantly higher in tissue containing UCP1 than in samples without this protein. This regularity was also observed after adaptation of mice to moderate cold (10oC) over 8 weeks.