Cold-activated brown adipose tissue in human adults: methodological issues.

Cold-activated Brown Adipose Tissue in Humans High Incidence of Metabolically Active Brown Adipose Tissue in Healthy Adult Humans: Effects of Cold Exposure and Adiposity

Incidental finding of low brown adipose tissue activity in endurance-trained individuals: Methodological considerations for positron emission tomography.

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adults has been shown to have a meaningful impact on energy expenditure and cold-induced thermogenesis. Data from rodent research have suggested that exercise may be a promising method of increasing BAT activity, with potential applications to the treatment and prevention of obesity and diabetes. However, emerging human research using positron emission tomography (...

Human Brown Fat and Obesity: Methodological Aspects

Much is known about brown adipose tissue (BAT) in rodents. Its function is to generate heat in response to low environmental temperatures and to diet or overfeeding. The knowledge about BAT in humans is still rather limited despite the recent rediscovery of its functionality in adults. This review highlights the information available on the contribution of BAT in increasing human energy expendi...

The Good Fat

Heat produced by brown adipose tissue allows homeothermic animals to maintain their body temperature in cold environments. New work by Nguyen et al. suggests that the induction of this process, known as adaptive thermogenesis, involves an unexpected intermediary: macrophages. To be more specific, the authors implicate ‘‘alternatively activated’’ macrophages, which are anti-inflammatory and have...

Brown Fat and Browning for the Treatment of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders

Brown fat is a specialized fat depot that can increase energy expenditure and produce heat. After the recent discovery of the presence of active brown fat in human adults and novel transcription factors controlling brown adipocyte differentiation, the field of the study of brown fat has gained great interest and is rapidly growing. Brown fat expansion and/or activation results in increased ener...