Blunting of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in brown adipose tissue induces systemic metabolic dysregulation in female mice

Summary The role of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in thermogenesis is widely appreciated, whereas its more recently described role in whole-body metabolism is not as well understood. Here we demonstrate that deletion of Rab10 from brown adipocytes reduces insulin-stimulated glucose transport by inhibiting translocation of the GLUT4 glucose transporter to the plasma membrane. This blunting of glucose uptake into brown adipocytes induces glucose intolerance and insulin-resistance in female but not male mice. The defect in glucose uptake does not affect the thermogenic function of BAT, and the dysregulation of whole-body metabolism is independent of the thermogenic function of BAT, thereby revealing a metabolism-specific role for BAT in female mice. The reduced glucose uptake induced by RAB10 deletion disrupts ChREBP regulation of the expression of de novo lipogenesis-related (DNL) genes, providing a link between DNL in BAT and whole-body metabolic regulation that is independent of thermogenesis.