PET/ MR scanning to quantify brown adipose tissue activity
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Use of PET/MRI scanning to quantify brown adipose tissue activity in humans
IRAS ID
272577
Contact name
Roland H. Stimson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 31 days
Research summary
Summary of Research
Brown fat is a special type of fat which functions to burn calories to keep our bodies warm when we're placed in a cold environment. People who are weigh more may have less brown fat than lean individuals and activating brown fat may be an exciting new way to treat obesity. At present, the only way to accurately measure how much brown fat people have is through a PET scan, which is most commonly combined with a CT scan. We aim to determine whether a different form of PET scan using MRI can accurately measure brown fat activity in healthy volunteers who are above normal weight. We hypothesize that the MRI part of this scan may be able to detect brown fat without the PET component. To test this, 6 healthy volunteers will be recruited to a study where they will first have a MRI scan and then be placed in a room cooled to 16 degrees for 2 hours to activate their brown fat before undergoing a PET/MRI scan.
Summary of Results
Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a unique type of fat present in our body that generates heat to keep us warm when we're placed in a cold environment. There is much interest in trying to activate this tissue to increase the amount of energy we burn as a new treatment for obesity. Previous research indicates that BAT function may be reduced in obesity, however it isn't clear. We recruited 6 healthy volunteers with obesity and compared their BAT function with other normal weight volunteers. To activate their BAT, we placed subjects in a room cooled to 16 degrees celcius for and measured their BAT function using a specialised imaging technique called PET scanning (stands for positron emission tomography). We found that the BAT function of the obese group was the same as the normal weight group, indicating that BAT activity is maintained at least in young healthy volunteers with obesity. Activating BAT is a viable strategy as a novel treatment for obesity and associated metabolic disease.
REC name
South East Scotland REC 02
REC reference
20/SS/0024
Date of REC Opinion
21 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion