Initiation of myoblast to brown fat switch by a PRDM16-C/EBP-beta transcriptional complex.

Here it is shown that PRDM16, a zinc finger protein that controls the switch from myoblastic precursors to brown fat cells, works together with C/EBP-β and that expression of this transcriptional unit is sufficient to induce a fully functional brown fat program in naive fibroblasts. Transplantation of such fibroblasts into mice creates a brown fat pad that acts as a sink for glucose.