Highlights
- •Differences in cooling methodology might lead to differences in BAT activity.
- •The head might play an important role in the activation of BAT.
- •BAT might be important in the thermoregulation of the central nervous system.
Abstract
Brown adipose tissue is able to increase energy expenditure by converting glucose
and fatty acids into heat. Therefore, BAT is able to increase energy expenditure and
could thereby facilitate weight loss or at least weight maintenance. Since cold is
a strong activator of BAT, most prospective research is performed during cold to activate
BAT.
In current research, there are roughly two methods of cooling. Cooling by lowering
ambient air temperature, which uses a fixed temperature for all subjects and personalized
cooling, which uses cooling blankets or vests with temperatures that can be adjusted
to the individual set point of shivering. These methods might trigger mechanistically
different cold responses and hence result in a different BAT activation.
This hypothesis is underlined by two studies with the same research question (difference
in BAT activity between Caucasians and South Asians) one study found no differences
in BAT activity whereas the other did found differences in BAT activity. Since most
characteristics (e.g. age, BMI) were similar in the two studies, the best explanation
for the differences in outcomes is the use of different cooling protocols.
One of the reasons for differences in outcomes might be the sensory input from the
facial skin, which might be important for the activation of BAT.
In this review we will elaborate on the differences between the two cooling protocols
used to activate BAT.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to European Journal of Internal MedicineAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Look AHEAD (action for health in diabetes): design and methods for a clinical trial of weight loss for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetes.Control Clin Trials. 2003; 24: 610-628
- Bariatric surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA. 2004; 292: 1724-1737
- The big fat bariatric bandwagon.Diabetologia. 2010; 53: 1815-1822
- Unexpected evidence for active brown adipose tissue in adult humans.Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2007; 293: E444-E452
- Brown adipose tissue activity controls triglyceride clearance.Nat Med. 2011; 17: 200-205
- Interplay between FGF21 and insulin action in the liver regulates metabolism.J Clin Invest. 2014; 124: 515-527
- Brown adipose tissue takes up plasma triglycerides mostly after lipolysis.J Lipid Res. 2015; 56: 51-59
- (123)I- or (125)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine visualization of brown adipose tissue.J Nucl Med. 2002; 43: 1234-1240
- Combining 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine SPECT/CT and 18F-FDG PET/CT for the assessment of brown adipose tissue activity in humans during cold exposure.J Nucl Med. 2013; 54: 208-212
- Age-related decrease in cold-activated brown adipose tissue and accumulation of body fat in healthy humans.Obesity. 2011; 19: 1755-1760
- Fasting and postprandial activity of brown adipose tissue in healthy men.J Nucl Med. 2012; 53: 1407-1410
- Brown fat activation mediates cold-induced thermogenesis in adult humans in response to a mild decrease in ambient temperature.J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013; 98: E1218-E1223
- Assessment of oxidative metabolism in brown fat using PET imaging.Front Endocrinol. 2012; 3: 15
- Cold but not sympathomimetics activates human brown adipose tissue in vivo.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; 109: 10001-10005
- Cold acclimation recruits human brown fat and increases nonshivering thermogenesis.J Clin Invest. 2013; 123: 3395-3403
- Brown adipose tissue volume in healthy lean south Asian adults compared with white Caucasians: a prospective, case-controlled observational study.Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2014; 2: 210-217
- Differences in sympathetic nervous stimulation of brown adipose tissue between the young and old, and the lean and obese.J Nucl Med. 2016; 57: 372-377
- Cold-activated brown adipose tissue in human adults: methodological issues.Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2014; 307: R103-R113
- Functional brown adipose tissue in healthy adults.N Engl J Med. 2009; 360: 1518-1525
- High incidence of metabolically active brown adipose tissue in healthy adult humans: effects of cold exposure and adiposity.Diabetes. 2009; 58: 1526-1531
- Brown adipose tissue, whole-body energy expenditure, and thermogenesis in healthy adult men.Obesity. 2011; 19: 13-16
- Brown adipose tissue oxidative metabolism contributes to energy expenditure during acute cold exposure in humans.J Clin Invest. 2012; 122: 545-552
- Cold-induced activity of brown adipose tissue in young lean men of South-Asian and European origin.Diabetologia. 2013 Oct; 56 (Epub 2013 Jun 25): 2231-2237https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-013-2938-5
- Cold-induced vasoconstriction at forearm and hand skin sites: the effect of age.Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010; 109: 915-921
- The role of alpha1- and alpha2-adrenoceptors in gender differences in cutaneous LD flux response to local cooling.Microvasc Res. 2004; 68: 126-131
- The distribution of brown adipose tissue in the human.J Anat. 1972; 112: 35-39
- Anatomical locations of human brown adipose tissue: functional relevance and implications in obesity and type 2 diabetes.Diabetes. 2013; 62: 1783-1790
- Brown adipose tissue thermogenesis heats brain and body as part of the brain-coordinated ultradian basic rest-activity cycle.Neuroscience. 2009; 164: 849-861
- Identification and importance of brown adipose tissue in adult humans.N Engl J Med. 2009; 360: 1509-1517
- Cold-activated brown adipose tissue in healthy men.N Engl J Med. 2009; 360: 1500-1508
- Brown adipose tissue in morbidly obese subjects.PLoS One. 2011; 6e17247
- Differences in sympathetic nervous stimulation of brown adipose tissue between the young and old and the lean and obese.J Nucl Med. 2016 Mar; 57: 372-377https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.115.165829
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 05, 2017
Accepted:
December 30,
2016
Received in revised form:
November 7,
2016
Received:
September 9,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Reply to: Activation and quantification of human brown adipose tissue: Methodological considerations for between studies comparisonsEuropean Journal of Internal MedicineVol. 41
- PreviewWe thank Martinez-Tellez and co-authors for their interest in our article. Martinez-Tellez et al. are quite right in their statement that there are more factors involved in activation of human BAT than we described in our article [1]. However, the main aim of our manuscript was to speculate on/discuss the potential influence of facial cooling in the activation of BAT and therefore we did not focus on other differences between the publication of Admiraal et al. and Bakker et al. [2,3].
- Full-Text
- Preview
- Activation and quantification of human brown adipose tissue: Methodological considerations for between studies comparisons: Comment on: Hot heads & cool bodies: The conundrums of human BAT activity researchEuropean Journal of Internal MedicineVol. 40
- PreviewWe read with interest the study by Bahler et al. [1] that discusses the findings observed in two studies comparing brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity and volume in healthy young white Caucasians and South Asians [2,3]. While Admiraal et al. [2] found no differences in BAT activity and volume between groups, Bakker et al. [3] reported lower BAT volume in South Asians, despite the fact that both studies were comparable in terms of age, body mass index, sex, ethnicity and country of the participants.
- Full-Text
- Preview
