FABP3 and brown adipocyte-characteristic mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation enzymes are induced in beige cells in a different pathway from UCP1

•Cold exposure induced FABP3 and BA-characteristic FAO enzymes in subWAT.•CL treatment induced FABP3 and BA-characteristic FAO enzymes in subWAT.•CL did not induce FABP3 and BA-characteristic FAO enzymes in primary adipocytes. Cold exposure and β3-adrenergic receptor agonist (CL316,243) treatment induce the production of beige cells, which express brown adipocytes(BA)-specific UCP1 protein, in white adipose tissue (WAT). It remains unclear whether the beige cells, which have different gene expression patterns from BA, express BA-characteristic fatty acid oxidation (FAO) proteins. Here we found that 5day cold exposure and CL316,243 treatment of WAT, but not CL316,243 treatment of primary adipocytes of C57BL/6J mice, increased mRNA levels of BA-characteristic FAO proteins. These results suggest that BA-characteristic FAO proteins are induced in beige cells in a different pathway from UCP1.