Exercise Effects on White Adipose Tissue: Beiging and Metabolic Adaptations

Regular physical activity and exercise training have long been known to cause adaptations to white adipose tissue (WAT), including decreases in cell size and lipid content and increases in mitochondrial proteins. In this article, we discuss recent studies that have investigated the effects of exercise training on mitochondrial function, the “beiging ” of WAT, regulation of adipokines, metabolic effects of trained adipose tissue on systemic metabolism, and depot-specific responses to exercise training. The major WAT depots in the body are found in the visceral cavity (vWAT) and subcutaneously (scWAT). In rodent mod-els, exercise training increases mitochondrial biogenesis and activity in both these adipose tissue depots. Exercise training also increases expression of the brown adipocyte marker uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) in both adipose tissu