Jan Nedergaard

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Jan Nedergaard
Born
Jan Jacob Martin Nedergaard-Hansen

(1952-01-25) January 25, 1952 (age 72)
Occupation(s)Physiologist, academic and researcher
Academic background
EducationB.Sc. Chemistry, Biology 1974
Ph.D. Physiology 1980
D.Sc. (“docent”) Physiology 1982
Alma materGöteborg University
Stockholm University
ThesisControl of fatty acid utilization in brown adipose tissue (1980)
Academic work
InstitutionsStockholm University

Jan Nedergaard is a physiologist, academic, and researcher. He is Professor of Physiology at the Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University.[1]

Nedergaard's research revolves around elucidating the function and physiological importance of brown adipose tissue, as well as the importance of thermoneutrality in translating mouse data to human conditions.[2] He has authored/co-authored 204 primary articles and 134 reviews and book chapters, with 15 original articles as first author and 117 as corresponding senior author,[3] and was one of 9 scientists at Stockholm University and one of 25 scientists in Sweden who were named on the 2019 Highly Cited Researchers list.[4] His primary publications have appeared in journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Communications,[5] Cell Metabolism, Nature Metabolism, The EMBO Journal, American Journal of Physiology, BBA Bioenergetics and Biochimie.[6]

Nedergaard is a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences[7] and is a recipient of the Science Award for Obesity Research,[8] The Friedrich Wassermann Award, and Prize for Scientific Review Writing.[9]

Education[edit]

Nedergaard pursued studies in chemistry and biology at Göteborg University from 1971 to 1973, graduating in Stockholm with a B.Sc. degree in 1974. Following this, he started his Ph.D. in 1975 at the Wenner-Gren Institute, under the mentorship of Olov Lindberg.[10] He completed his doctoral education with a thesis titled "Control of Fatty Acid Utilization in Brown Adipose Tissue" in 1980, subsequently earning a D.Sc. degree in 1982 from Stockholm University.[11]

Career[edit]

Nedergaard assumed the role of associate professor at The Wenner-Gren Institute in 1984, becoming a full professor 1994, and he served as a Member of the Evaluation Committee for Biological Sciences at the Swedish Natural Science Research Council from 1989 to 1995. He served as the Dean of the Subfaculty of Biology in 2003.[12] He was Secretary for the National Committee for Physiology from 2006 to 2016 and has been professor emeritus at Stockholm University since 2019.[13]

Research[edit]

Nedergaard has focused his research on brown adipose tissue and its role in metabolism, contributing to concepts such as understanding brown adipocyte precursors,[14] the effects of brown adipose tissue on obesity, and its activity in adult humans.[15] He has also advocated using thermoneutrality to apply mouse data to human conditions, highlighting similarities between human and mouse brown adipose tissue.[16]

Brown adipose tissue[edit]

Nedergaard's investigations into brown adipose tissue have shed light on signaling pathways and functional roles, highlighting the physiological importance of this tissue. In the 1980s and 1990s, he established distinct signaling pathways and functional roles for adrenergic stimulation of brown adipose tissue[17] and showed that alpha1-adrenergic pathways were mainly ionic, while beta-adrenergic pathways were associated with the activation of uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1), which proved to be specifically present in brown adipose tissue.[18] He studied the regulation of UCP1 activation and co-authored the work "Brown Adipose Tissue: Function and Physiological Significance" in 2004.[15]

In his 2007 paper, Nedergaard pointed out that brown adipose tissue is present and active in adult humans.[19] He has also contributed to the establishment of basic concepts in brown adipose tissue research,[17] including the developmental differences between brown and white adipocyte precursors, where the brown adipocytes precursors initially display myogenic gene expression markers.[20] Additionally, his work highlighted how the absence of brown adipose tissue may contribute to obesity,[21] and that UCP1-expressing cells that can develop in white adipose depots represent a distinct type of adipocyte, termed "brite" (now "beige") adipocytes, due to their unique gene expression profile compared to classical brown adipocytes.[22]

Mammalian thermogenesis and metabolism[edit]

Nedergaard's research on mice and human metabolism has emphasized the significance of thermoneutral temperatures in metabolic physiology. He has discussed the critical influence of ambient temperature on metabolic experiments, particularly regarding nonshivering thermogenesis and its implications for understanding mammalian metabolism, highlighting the importance of examining animals at thermoneutral temperatures.[23] His research investigated the impact of housing temperatures on mouse metabolism, demonstrating that mice under thermoneutral conditions exhibited energy expenditure profiles similar to those of humans.[24] Further expanding on this, he compared human brown adipose tissue (BAT) with classical brown and brite/beige adipose tissues, demonstrating that human BAT shared characteristics with classical mouse BAT, affirming their comparable nature.[25]

Awards and honors[edit]

  • 2011 – Science Award for Obesity Research, Nutrition et Santé[8]
  • 2016 – Prize for Scientific Review Writing, American Physiology Society[9]
  • 2017 – The Friedrich Wassermann Award, European Association

Personal life[edit]

Nedergaard has been living in Sweden since 1971. He is married to Barbara Cannon and they have two sons.

Selected articles[edit]

  • Cannon, B., & Nedergaard, J. A. N. (2004). Brown adipose tissue: function and physiological significance. Physiological reviews, 84(1), 277–359.
  • Nedergaard, J., Bengtsson, T., & Cannon, B. (2007). Unexpected evidence for active brown adipose tissue in adult humans. American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, 293(2), E444-E452.
  • Feldmann, H. M., Golozoubova, V., Cannon, B., & Nedergaard, J. (2009). UCP1 ablation induces obesity and abolishes diet-induced thermogenesis in mice exempt from thermal stress by living at thermoneutrality. Cell metabolism, 9(2), 203–209.
  • Zingaretti, M. C., Crosta, F., Vitali, A., Guerrieri, M., Frontini, A., Cannon, B., ... & Cinti, S. (2009). The presence of UCP1 demonstrates that metabolically active adipose tissue in the neck of adult humans truly represents brown adipose tissue. The FASEB Journal, 23(9), 3113–3120.
  • Petrovic, N., Walden, T. B., Shabalina, I. G., Timmons, J. A., Cannon, B., & Nedergaard, J. (2010). Chronic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) activation of epididymally derived white adipocyte cultures reveals a population of thermogenically competent, UCP1-containing adipocytes molecularly distinct from classic brown adipocytes. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 285(10), 7153–7164.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Jan Nedergaard - Stockholm University". www.su.se.
  2. ^ "Group Nedergaard & Cannon - Stockholm University". www.su.se.
  3. ^ "Jan Nedergaard". scholar.google.com.
  4. ^ "Nine researchers at Stockholm University among the world's most cited - Stockholm University". www.su.se.
  5. ^ Abreu-Vieira, Gustavo; Fischer, Alexander W.; Mattsson, Charlotte; de Jong, Jasper M. A.; Shabalina, Irina G.; Rydén, Mikael; Laurencikiene, Jurga; Arner, Peter; Cannon, Barbara; Nedergaard, Jan; Petrovic, Natasa (June 29, 2015). "Cidea improves the metabolic profile through expansion of adipose tissue". Nature Communications. 6 (1): 7433. doi:10.1038/ncomms8433 – via www.nature.com.
  6. ^ "UCP1 in adipose tissues: two steps to full browning - ScienceDirect".
  7. ^ "Six new members elected to the Academy". Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien. February 3, 2014.
  8. ^ a b "Les Slimming Awards récompensent cette année 3 travaux scientifiques sur l'obésité". November 9, 2011.
  9. ^ a b Allen, Liz (April 25, 2016). "Congrats Barbara Cannon and Jan Nedergaard – winners of the APS 2016 Annual Reviews Award for Scientific Reviewing". Annual Reviews News.
  10. ^ "Exploring brown fat: The long road ahead". www.healio.com.
  11. ^ "DiVA - Sökresultat". www.diva-portal.org.
  12. ^ "Jan Nedergaard". WUR. February 27, 2013.
  13. ^ "Jan Nedergaard". Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien.
  14. ^ "The Browning of White Adipose Tissue Some Burning Issues".
  15. ^ a b "Brown Adipose Tissue: Function and Physiological Significance".
  16. ^ Cannon, Barbara; de Jong, Jasper M. A.; Fischer, Alexander W.; Nedergaard, Jan; Petrovic, Natasa (August 17, 2020). "Human brown adipose tissue: Classical brown rather than brite/beige?". Experimental Physiology. 105 (8): 1191–1200. doi:10.1113/EP087875 – via CrossRef.
  17. ^ a b "A novel pathway for adrenergic stimulation of cAMP-response-element-binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation: mediation via α1-adrenoceptors and protein kinase C activation".
  18. ^ "The Bioenergetics of Brown Fat Mitochondria from UCP1-ablated Mice - Journal of Biological Chemistry".
  19. ^ "Unexpected evidence for active brown adipose tissue in adult humans".
  20. ^ Timmons, James A.; Wennmalm, Kristian; Larsson, Ola; Walden, Tomas B.; Lassmann, Timo; Petrovic, Natasa; Hamilton, D. Lee; Gimeno, Ruth E.; Wahlestedt, Claes; Baar, Keith; Nedergaard, Jan; Cannon, Barbara (March 13, 2007). "Myogenic gene expression signature establishes that brown and white adipocytes originate from distinct cell lineages". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104 (11): 4401–4406. doi:10.1073/pnas.0610615104. PMC 1810328. PMID 17360536 – via PubMed.
  21. ^ "UCP1 Ablation Induces Obesity and Abolishes Diet-Induced Thermogenesis in Mice Exempt from Thermal Stress by Living at Thermoneutrality" (PDF).
  22. ^ "Chronic Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor γ (PPARγ) Activation of Epididymally Derived White Adipocyte Cultures Reveals a Population of Thermogenically Competent, UCP1-containing Adipocytes Molecularly Distinct from Classic Brown Adipocytes* - Journal of Biological Chemistry".
  23. ^ "Nonshivering thermogenesis and its adequate measurement in metabolic studies".
  24. ^ "Optimal housing temperatures for mice to mimic the thermal environment of humans: An experimental study".
  25. ^ de Jong, Jasper M. A.; Sun, Wenfei; Pires, Nuno D.; Frontini, Andrea; Balaz, Miroslav; Jespersen, Naja Z.; Feizi, Amir; Petrovic, Katarina; Fischer, Alexander W.; Bokhari, Muhammad Hamza; Niemi, Tarja; Nuutila, Pirjo; Cinti, Saverio; Nielsen, Søren; Scheele, Camilla; Virtanen, Kirsi; Cannon, Barbara; Nedergaard, Jan; Wolfrum, Christian; Petrovic, Natasa (August 17, 2019). "Human brown adipose tissue is phenocopied by classical brown adipose tissue in physiologically humanized mice". Nature Metabolism. 1 (8): 830–843. doi:10.1038/s42255-019-0101-4 – via www.nature.com.