Kinetics of human brown adipose tissue activation and deactivation

• Published in: International Journal of Obesity Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 633 - 637
• Main Authors: Leitner, Brooks P., Weiner, Lauren S., Desir, Matthew, Kahn, Peter A., Selen, Daryl J., Tsang, Cathy, Kolodny, Gerald M., Cypess, Aaron M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.03.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 59/78; 631/443/319/1642/393; 631/443/319/2723; 692/308/2779/109/1940; Activation; Adipose tissue; Adipose tissue (brown); Adipose Tissue, Brown - diagnostic imaging; Adipose Tissue, Brown - metabolism; Adipose Tissue, Brown - physiology; Adipose Tissue, Brown - radiation effects; Adult; Adults; Body mass index; Brief Communication; Brown adipose tissue; Care and treatment; Clinical trials; Cold Temperature; Computed tomography; Cooling; Deactivation; Epidemiology; Female; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 - administration & dosage; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 - metabolism; Glucose; Glucose metabolism; Health aspects; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Humans; Hypothermia, Induced; Internal Medicine; Kinetics; Male; Medical schools; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Metabolic disorders; Obesity; Physiological aspects; Positron emission; Positron emission tomography; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography; Public Health; Target recognition; Temperature effects; Thermogenesis; Thermogenesis - radiation effects; Tomography
• ISSN: 0307-0565; 1476-5497; 1476-5497
• DOI: 10.1038/s41366-018-0104-3

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) has been identified as a potential target in the treatment and prevention of obesity and metabolic disease. The precise kinetics of BAT activation and the duration of stimulus required to recruit metabolically active BAT, and its subsequent deactivation, are not well-understood. In this clinical trial, 19 healthy adults (BMI: 23.7 ± 0.7 kg/m 2 , Age: 31.2 ± 2.8 year, 12 female) underwent three different cooling procedures to stimulate BAT glucose uptake, and active BAT volume was determined using 18 F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT imaging. We found that 20 min of pre-injection cooling produces activation similar to the standard 60 min (39.9 mL vs. 44.2 mL, p  = 0.52), indicating that BAT activity approaches its peak function soon after the initiation of cooling. Furthermore, upon removal of cold exposure, active BAT volume declines (13.6 mL vs. 44.2 mL, p  = 0.002), but the deactivation process persists even hours following cessation of cooling. Thus, the kinetics of human BAT thermogenesis are characterized by a rapid increase soon after cold stimulation but a more gradual decline after rewarming. These characteristics reinforce the feasibility of developing mild, short-duration cold exposure to activate BAT and treat obesity and metabolic disease.