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Abstract
Two types of adipose tissue are found in mammals, including humans: the white adipose tissue (WAT) and the brown adipose tissue (BAT). The WAT has a major role in lipid storage and body thermal insulation, while the BAT is a thermogenic tissue that produces heat by oxidizing fatty acids. Both structural characterization and spectroscopic discrimination of these different adipose tissues are matters of current interest, also in view of possible medical and bio-technological applications. In this work, vibrational and structural investigations on rat BAT and WAT have been carried out by means of infrared and Raman micro-spectroscopy. By comparing their vibrational spectra some characteristic peaks have been identified as useful markers to discriminate between the two tissues. Moreover, a quantitative evaluation of the relative degree of unsaturation of the triglyceride component in WAT and BAT has been derived. These results corroborate the vibrational spectroscopy as a reliable and minimally invasive tool in biological and medical research.