Microbiota depletion promotes browning of white adipose tissue and reduces obesity

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) promotes a lean and healthy phenotype and improves insulin sensitivity(1). In response to cold or exercise brown fat cells also emerge in the white adipose tissue (named beige cells), a process known as browning(2,3,4). Here, we show that the development of functional beige fat is promoted by microbiota depletion either by antibiotic treatment or in germ-free mice within the inguinal subcutaneous and perigonadal visceral adipose tissues (ingSAT and pgVAT, respectively). This leads to improved glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity and decreased white fat and adipocyte size in lean mice and obese leptin-deficient (ob/ob) and high fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. These metabolic improvements are mediated by eosinophil infiltration and enhanced type 2 cytokine signaling and M2 macrophage polarization in the subcutaneous white fat depots of microbiota-depleted animals. The metabolic phenotype and the browning of the subcutaneous fat are impaired by suppression of the type 2 signaling and are reversed by recolonization of the antibiotic-treated, or the germ-free mice with microbes. These results provide insight into microbiota-fat signaling axis and beige fat development in health and metabolic disease.