Neural and vascular provisions of rat interscapular brown adipose tissue

Abstract

The innervation of rat interscapular brown adipose tissue has been studied by light and fluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy after treatment with “false” adrenergic neurotransmitters 5‐ and 6‐hydroxydopamine. The vascular markers neoprene latex and thioflavin S were used to define the blood vascular arrangements within and around the tissue. Catecholaminergic innervation was revealed by fluorescence microscopy at both parenchymal and vasomotor sites. In animals injected with 6‐hydroxydopamine, this catecholaminergic fluorescence was extinguished in the parenchymal nerve distribution and markedly reduced in the vasomotor plexus. Identification of an extensive network of noradrenergic vasomotor and parenchymal nerve terminals was established by electron microscopy after 5‐ and 6‐hydroxydopamine administration, but unmarked terminals were also observed in both distributions. These unmarked terminals might represent an additional nonnoradrenergic nerve supply to interscapular brown adipose tissue. The thoracodorsal veins draining the fat pads are directly tributary to a large median perforating vein, which joins the azygos vein, and are also continuous with the axillary vein. In addition to the recognized vascular distribution pattern of lobular arteries supplying an abundant capillary plexus drained by lobular veins, direct arteriovenous anastomoses were observed within the interscapular brown fat pad. It is postulated that these additional vascular arrangements are determinant in the phenomenal increase in blood flow through brown adipose tissue during metabolic stimulation.