Background
There are two types of adipose tissue. White adipose tissue (WAT) stores energy in the form of lipids. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) consumes energy to produce heat by thermogenesis, which depends on the brown adipocytes specific marker uncoupling protein-1 (UCP—1). Metabolically active BAT is present in adult humans and its energy consuming properties could be exploited to increase energy expenditure. We and others showed that the nitric oxide (NO)/ cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) pathway is crucial for brown adipocyte differentiation [1, 2]. Here we studied the role of sGC in brown adipocyte differentiation employing the sGC stimulator BAY 41—2272.