The effect of oxybutynin on human brown adipose tissue. Version 1.0.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The effect of anticholinergics on brown adipose tissue activation in humans
IRAS ID
287975
Contact name
Roland H Stimson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Research Summary
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. Brown fat is very different from the rest of the fat in our body, that is called white fat and its role is to store energy for us to use when we’ve not eaten for a while. Until recently, it wasn’t thought that adults have brown fat but we and others have shown using a special technique called PET scanning that many people do have brown fat and it’s activated by mild cold (just sitting in a room at 17°C). Activating brown fat burns extra calories, and also lowers sugar and cholesterol levels in the body so creating an orally taken tablet to activate brown fat is an exciting new strategy to treat obesity and diabetes. However, we understand very little of how to activate brown fat. We have new evidence that the drug oxybutynin may alter how much energy brown fat burns. To test this, 10 healthy volunteers will be given oxybutynin or placebo in a random order prior to undergoing a PET scan during mild cold exposure to determine the effect on brown fat activity. Volunteers will then cross over to the other phase of the study after at least a 2-week washout period.
Summary of Results
Brown fat is a special type of tissue that generates heat to keep our bodies warm when we're placed in a cold environment. We We recruited 15 healthy volunteers to a study to determine whether the drug oxybutynin (a medication often used to treat symptoms of an overactive bladder) changed brown fat function. Volunteers were given 4 days of oxybutynin or a dummy placebo medicine and then were placed in a room cooled to 16°C for 3 hours to activate their brown fat. Volunteers then underwent a special scan called a positron emission tomography scans to measure their brown fat activity. This study revealed that oxybutynin decreased brown fat activity in these volunteers compared with placebo. This research demonstrated a new mechanism that regulates brown fat activity in humans.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
20/ES/0128
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jan 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion