Apoptotic brown adipocytes enhance energy expenditure via extracellular inosine.

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) dissipates energy and promotes cardiometabolic health. Loss of BAT during obesity and ageing is a principal hurdle for BAT-centred obesity therapies, but not much is known about BAT apoptosis. Here, untargeted metabolomics demonstrated that apoptotic brown adipocytes release a specific pattern of metabolites with purine metabolites being highly enriched.