Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Oct;68(4):1285-90.
doi: 10.1002/mrm.24118. Epub 2012 Jan 9.

Detecting brown adipose tissue activity with BOLD MRI in mice

Arjun Khanna  1 , Rosa T Branca
Affiliations

Detecting brown adipose tissue activity with BOLD MRI in mice

Arjun Khanna et al. Magn Reson Med. 2012 Oct.

Abstract

The recent discovery of active brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans and the correlation found between the activity of this tissue and resting metabolic rate strongly suggest that this tissue may be implicated in the development of obesity in humans, as it is in rodents. Despite the possible physiological role of this tissue in the onset of human obesity, few noninvasive imaging techniques to detect BAT activity in humans exist. The scope of this work is to investigate the possibility of detecting BAT activity using blood-oxygen-level-dependent MRI. Our results show that the strong increase in oxygen consumption and consequent increase in blood deoxyhemoglobin levels following BAT activation lead to a well-localized signal drop in BAT. This strongly suggests the possibility to use blood-oxygen-level-dependent MRI for the noninvasive detection of BAT activity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Interscapular BAT, rectal, and room temperature before, during and after BAT stimulation by NE injection in a single BALB/C mouse.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Rectal temperature measured during a single imaging session in a BALB/C mouse before and after a series of two NE injections (2.5 mg/kg each).(b) Signal from iBAT, white adipose tissue (WAT),muscle, and Sulzer’s vein and surrounding tissue pre-, during, and after this series of two NE injections. (c) Spin-echo image acquired before the injection of NE showing selected ROIs: muscle (ROI_1), iBAT (ROI_2), WAT (ROI_3), and Sulzer’s vein and surrounding tissue (ROI_4).In T2-weighted images, as expected, iBAT appears, when inactive, as a tissue whose intensity is higher than muscle and lower than WAT.(d) Expected BAT activity pattern based on the effect of NE on rectal temperature over two injections in Figure 2.a. After an i.p. injection of NE, BAT soon becomes (1–2 minutes) fully stimulated. The stimulation lasts for about 60 minutes to then slowly starts to decrease as NE is degraded in the blood. (e) Map showing correlation between the expected BAT activity and the MR signal intensity.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) MR signal behavior of BAT in a Cav1-mutated mouse before, during, and after stimulation by NE (4 mg/kg) in various tissues.(b)T2-weighted spin-echo image outlining iBAT (dotted-line) acquired before injection of NE. (c) T2-weighted spin-echo image acquired immediately after injection of NE.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(a) Axial T2-weighted images acquired before stimulation of BAT highlighting the region containing iBAT (b–d) T2-weighted images outlining iBAT (dotted line) from the indicated region acquired before (b), during (c), and after(d) stimulation of BAT by 2.5 mg/kg NE. (e–g) T2*-weighted images of the same area, acquired with the asymmetric spin-echo sequence, before (e), during(f), and after (g) stimulation of BAT by 2.5 mg/kgNE.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Cannon B, Nedergaard J. Brown Adipose Tissue: Function and Physiological Significance. Physiological Reviews. 2004;84(1):277–359. - PubMed
    1. Himms-Hagen J, Desautels M. A mitochondrial defect in brown adipose tissue of the obese (ob/ob) mouse: Reduced binding of purine nucleotides and a failure to respond to cold by an increase in binding. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 1978;83(2):628–634. - PubMed
    1. Trayhurn P, Thurlby PL, James WPT. Thermogenic defect in pre-obese ob/ob mice. Nature. 1977;266(5597):60–62. - PubMed
    1. Hamann A, Benecke H, Le Marchand-Brustel Y, Susulic VS, Lowell BB, Flier JS. Characterization of insulin resistance and NIDDM in transgenic mice with reduced brown fat. Diabetes. 1995;44(11):1266–1273. - PubMed
    1. Cunningham S, Leslie P, Hopwood D, Illingworth P, Jung RT, Nicholls DG, Peden N, Rafael J, Rial E. The characterization and energetic potential of brown adipose tissue in man. Clin Sci. 1985;69(3):343–348. - PubMed

Publication types

-