Abstract. A new cellular model for the study of brown adipocyte development and differentiation in vitro is presented . Preadipocytes isolated from brown adipose tissue (BAT) of the djungarian dwarf hamster Phodopus sungorus are able to proliferate and differentiate in vitro into true brown adipocytes able to express the BAT marker protein the uncoupling protein (UCP) . Whereas basal UCP expression is very low, its mRNA levels as well as the UCP detected by immunoblotting are highly increased by 0-adrenergic stimulation. The novel, atypical 0-adrenergic compound D7114 (ICI Pharmaceuticals, Macclesfield, Cheshire, T wo types of adipose tissue with quite different functions are known to exist in mammals : firstly the white adipose tissue whose main function is energy storage, secondly the so-called brown adipose tissue (BAT)', which functions as a heat dissipating organ in small and newborn mammals . This function is due to the uncoupling protein (UCP), uniquely expressed in BAT, which is located in the inner mitochondrial membrane (for review see 24) . UCP functions as a proton translocator and can thus short circuit the coupling between the respiratory chain and ATP production, resulting in elevated respiration rates and dissipation of the energy as heat (28). Contrary to white fat, the BAT is highly innervated and vascularized and brown adipocytes have very high respiratory capacities, i .e., a high content of mitochondria. Brown fat is considered to play an important function in energy balance, by dissipating excess energy intake as heat in certain animal models (38). It is also known that many types of obesity in animals are associated with a defective BAT function (17) . Despite their quite contrary physiological function, it is not yet clear if brown and white adipocytes should be considered as two distinctly different cell types or iftheyjust represent two different differentiation or maturation states of the same cell type. According to our present knowledge, every adipocyte that expresses UCP is England) was found to increase the number of adipocytes as well as UCP mRNA and UCP content of mitochondria, indicating the involvement of an atypical or /33 receptor. Insulin was found to play an important role in brown adipocyte differentiation and mitochondria) development, whereas T3 seemed to be implicated more directly in UCP expression . In a defined, serum-free medium a synergistic stimulatory action of insulin and T3 on UCP expression was found, which seems to involve a pathway different from that of 0-adrenergic UCP stimulation . considered a brown adipocyte, whereas an adipocyte not expressing UCP is not automatically a white adipocyte. In small mammals, like rodents, BAT preserves throughout the animal life its thermogenic ability, i .e., the ability to express UCP. But in larger mammals, like bovine and ovine species, itwas shown that fat depots ofa true brown nature are present at birth, which very rapidly lose their "brown" nature and become typical white depots which will never express UCP anymore...