ISSN:
1432-1424
Keywords:
brown adipose tissue
;
gap junction
;
cold acclimation
;
freeze fracture
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
Notes:
Summary The decrease in the metabolic capacity of rat brown adipose tissue during the late postnatal period can be reversed by cold acclimation of the animals. In order to find out whether a parallel decrease in capability for intercellular communication observed during this period is also reversed by cold acclimation, gap junction size and number per unit area of cell surface have been quantified in freeze-fracture replicas; cell diameters have been measured in semi-thin sections. It was found that the specific number of gap junctions remains unchanged during cold acclimation. However, the mean gap junction size increases by 75% and the ratio of gap junctional area per cell volume, an index for intercellular exchange capacity, is doubled. This result illustrates further the parallelism between metabolic capacity and cell communication in brown fat.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01869196
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