Adipose tissue cells in cold-acclimatised sheep

The morphology and lipid content of adipose tissue from sheep subjected to cold acclimatisation were examined. In two sheep the perirenal adipose tissue contained virtually no triglyceride (<2 mg/100 mg wet tissue) and the appearance on electron microscopy was typical of that of a depleted white fat cell. The morphological, chemical and physiological evidence indicates that, in the sheep, white adipose tissue does not revert to brown adipose tissue during depletion resulting from cold acclimatisation.