Original ArticlePediatric Brown Adipose Tissue: Detection, Epidemiology, and Differences from Adults
Section snippets
Methods
This study was conducted in accordance with institutional guidelines and was approved by the Ethics Committee of Children’s Hospital Boston. All PET scans performed in patients aged 0.7-20.99 years between November 2004 and November 2007 at Children’s Hospital Boston were reviewed, a total of 428 scans in 196 patients. Forty-three scans were performed in 24 patients who were sedated, and these were excluded from the analysis because of the possibility of reduced BAT activity due to the effects
Results
A total of 385 scans performed in 172 patients (75 females and 97 males) were analyzed. Anatomically, pediatric BAT was found consistently in the cervical and supraclavicular depots and much less frequently in the paraspinal and abdominal depots, similar to the distribution in adults.5, 19, 20 We first determined the presence or absence of BAT uptake in each individual patient. In patients who had undergone multiple scans, the study with the highest activity was used for analysis, to determine
Discussion
It had long been assumed that adult humans have no functional BAT.21, 22 That belief was recently overturned by studies from 5 independent groups reporting functional BAT in adult humans.4, 5, 6, 7, 8 In adults, BAT activation measured by PET has a female predominance, and its activity correlates inversely with age,5 BMI,9 and outdoor temperature.5, 8 In children, it had been assumed that BAT is functional only in neonates, and that its activity declines shortly thereafter.3, 23 Our study
References (27)
- et al.
Pediatric obesity: etiology and treatment
Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am
(2009) - et al.
Brown adipose tissue: function and physiological significance
Physiol Rev
(2004) The distribution of brown adipose tissue in the human
J Anat
(1972)- et al.
Structure of periadrenal brown fat in childhood in both expected and cot deaths
Arch Dis Child
(1978) - et al.
Cold-activated brown adipose tissue in healthy men
N Engl J Med
(2009) - et al.
Identification and importance of brown adipose tissue in adult humans
N Engl J Med
(2009) - et al.
Functional brown adipose tissue in healthy adults
N Engl J Med
(2009) - et al.
The presence of UCP1 demonstrates that metabolically active adipose tissue in the neck of adult humans truly represents brown adipose tissue
FASEB J
(2009) - et al.
High incidence of metabolically active brown adipose tissue in healthy adult humans: effects of cold exposure and adiposity
Diabetes
(2009) - et al.
Impact of age on the relationships of brown adipose tissue with sex and adiposity in humans
Diabetes
(2010)
High body mass index for age among US children and adolescents, 2003-2006
JAMA
Constant ambient temperature of 24°C significantly reduces FDG uptake by brown adipose tissue in children scanned during the winter
Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
Pre-medication to block [(18)F]FDG uptake in the brown adipose tissue of pediatric and adolescent patients
Pediatr Radiol
Cited by (77)
The new kids on the block: Emerging obesogens
2021, Advances in PharmacologyNeuroendocrine drivers of risk and resilience: The influence of metabolism & mitochondria
2019, Frontiers in NeuroendocrinologyCitation Excerpt :Unlike other proteins in the uncoupling protein family, UCP1 is specific to BAT (Klaus et al., 1991). Initially BAT was thought to be negligible in the context of adult human metabolism, with significance only in infants (Drubach et al., 2011; Gilsanz et al., 2011). This view has since changed with evidence that BAT can be generated in adults and exert metabolic activity under the appropriate conditions (Lee et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2015).
Sexual Dimorphism of Brown Adipose Tissue Function
2019, Journal of PediatricsMRI estimates of brown adipose tissue in children – Associations to adiposity, osteocalcin, and thigh muscle volume
2019, Magnetic Resonance ImagingIncidence and Risk Factors for Brown Adipose Tissue Uptake in PET Imaging in Pediatric Patients
2024, Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Supported by the Eli Lilly Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (grants DK046200, DK081604, DK087317, and RR025757, to A.C.), and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (grant P30 DK036836). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.