Promoting brown adipose tissue (BAT) development is an attractive strategy for the treatment of obesity, as activated BAT dissipates energy through thermogenesis; however, the mechanisms controlling BAT formation are not fully understood. We hypothesized that as a master regulator of energy metabolism, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) may play a direct role in the process and found that AMPKα1 (PRKAA1) ablation reduced Prdm16 expression and impaired BAT development. During early brown adipogenesis, the cellular levels of α-ketoglutarate (αKG), a key metabolite required for TET-mediated DNA demethylation, were profoundly increased and required for active DNA demethylation of the Prdm16 promoter. AMPKα1 ablation reduced isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 activity and cellular αKG levels. Remarkably, postnatal AMPK activation with AICAR or metformin rescued obesity-induced suppression of brown adipogenesis and thermogenesis. In summary, AMPK is essential for the epigenetic control of BAT development through αKG, thus linking a metabolite to progenitor cell differentiation and thermogenesis.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 19. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 May 2026.
All research outputs
#2,512,169
of 34,559,526 outputs
Outputs from Cell Metabolism (Science Direct)
#1,789
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Outputs of similar age
#31,257
of 333,667 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cell Metabolism (Science Direct)
#37
of 66 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,559,526 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,811 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 76.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 52% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 333,667 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 66 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 43rd percentile – i.e., 43% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
